Scarlet Heart: Koro
by LaDy CoUnteRpart of NaTsume
Summary: 21st century Hayami Rinka gets her soul transported to the body of Rin, a girl from the olden period. She meets ruthless 4th Prince Ryuu, who she knows will become emperor after killing his brothers. How would she live caught up in this bloody battle? Set during Hayami's 2nd year of middle school. AU.
1. The Princes

Scarlet Heart: Koro  
(Chiba x Hayami)

Disclaimer: I don't, and never will I, own Ansatsu Kyoushitsu/Assassination Classroom. I don't own Scarlet Heart/Bu Bu Jing Xin either. This plot also does not mention anything historically accurate. Though set in historical Japan, everything about the emperors and princes mentioned are made up. I did not bother to research about historical figures in Japan.

A/N: I've never tried a parody before. This was supposed to be just a crack two-shot however my logical approach to storytelling still prevailed. "Hell hath no fury than a fangirl scorned" that's what I immediately thought upon the ending of the Korean drama Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart: Ryeo. I was so mad I stopped writing that other ChibaHaya one-shot I was working on and somehow started writing this, with my head full of "this should be how it ended." This will be a 3-part fic. This first chapter is basically an introduction to the characters and it's a bit slow here but expect the next chapter to be fast-paced and focused on Hayami's badass-ery trying to get past a tragedy.

* * *

Hayami Rinka never had any problem dealing with her classmates' homeworks on top of her own. Her grades wouldn't drop just because of it. However, she had a problem with carrying (all the way home, mind you) all those books on top of her own. And definitely her arms would drop, along with those books, because of it.

Just her luck, a delivery motorcycle sped by, nearly colliding with her, and she barely had time to register all that happened in a split-second as the panicking driver did his best to avoid maximum damage by pushing her away and steer the motorcycle towards another direction. It wasn't enough, though. The steel delivery storage box on his back caught Hayami instead and she was instantly thrown on the ground.

She flew backside first and the last thing she registered before her mind blacked out was how the sun was suddenly gone. 'An eclipse?' she thought as her consciousness faded.

* * *

10th Prince Nagi

"Oi, Nagi, you've been soaking there for too long, come on out. No matter how you try to hide your body, you still look too much like a girl. Come out unless you want me to drop your clothes in the water and give you these to change into instead."

Hayami heard muffled voices as she came to. She wondered if she was in a hospital or heaven. Her life wasn't too nice but she thought it would still be better if it was the hospital. Her thoughts were broken when she felt movement disrupt her surroundings. She opened her eyes only to be shocked at what was happening. It was neither hospital nor heaven. She was drowning! How the hell that happened, she didn't think of for now. She had to reach the surface. She saw a muddled view of a small and slender body above her. By instinct, she reached out to it.

"Ha!" she exclaimed as she panted for air when she broke through the water.

"Blurgh," the sound of bubbles made her pause. She looked below and realized she was still holding the body and was causing it, or rather the person, to be submerged. She immediately let go and the person rose up from the water, panting. "What was that-"

Both of them blushed when their eyes met. They both averted their eyes and backed away from each other. When she grabbed him earlier, Hayami thought he was a female child who just happened to have tall genes. Boy was she wrong. He was actually a male who just happened to be short. He had long light blue hair, even longer than hers. Worse, he was naked while she was in thin traditional undergarments.

"Nagi-nii, what is it?" "Milady! Over here! Quick!"

They both looked at their own callers. Hayami then noticed that there was fog surrounding them, probably due to the heat of the bath water. She felt people enter the water they were in and she panicked. She saw the face of the girl who had called her, well, Hayami believed it was her she was calling, and saw urgency in it. By instinct, she started running to the girl.

"Hey, where do you think you're going? How dare you sneak into the royal bath of the Princes?" the blue-haired boy called out to her.

She looked back at him, gave his body a once over and smirked. "'Nii?' You definitely don't look like one," the gender-confusing boy blushed furiously at her parting remark.

* * *

9th Prince Tomo

"Okay, recap, we were playing by the water at the washing river earlier, and when you left me to fetch my clothes, you realized I had crept into a secret passage to the royal bath, and so you followed me there, saw me slip on a stone, fall and drown, but when you were just about to save me, the princes arrived, so you couldn't and I was left drowning for a long time until I saw that body, which isn't exactly fit for a prince, and rose," Hayami recounted. She felt like having a headache once more. Just speaking for that long was tiring for her too. "But more importantly, you're telling me that the current emperor is Emperor Souma and that I am in the capital, Heian-kyou, and that I am Rin, cousin of the lady of this house, which is owned by the 8th Prince, Sou."

"R-recap? What does 'recap' mean, milady?" the girl was named Yuki and was apparently her personal attendant. She was actually really beautiful, with long black hair she was sure would be popular with boys, and Hayami thought it was an injustice that she was just an attendant, to a non-royal even. Apparently Rin, now her identity, came from an aristocratic family, and she had a cousin named Rio who was married to the 8th Prince.

They'd gone through a cycle of explaining and her fainting a couple of times already. Now stable, Hayami only had one logical, albeit illogical, conclusion: her soul was transported back in time to the olden period in the body of someone named Rin.

"Hey, are they all here already?" she was taken out of her reverie by the arrival of a person who was panting.

"Your Highness! Uh, yes, they are already at the study," Yuki answered as she forced Hayami to lower her head too. Hayami confusedly looked at Yuki whose face was obviously flushed and then back at the newcomer. The newcomer was good looking enough, albeit not as some of the Princes who came in earlier. But out of the faces she's seen earlier, this one looked the friendliest.

"I'd be scolded by Aka-nii again!" he exclaimed then realized who he was talking to. "Ah, I've heard about you almost drowning earlier, are you okay now, Rin?"

"Ah, yes, Prince…" Hayami cast a nervous glance at her attendant.

"Just barely, Your Highness Prince Tomo!" Yuki nervously answered for her. "Do you want your favorite cookies from Lady Rio's hometown brought to the study?"

"Oh, sure, that would be good, thanks! Be careful from now on, Rin," he smiled at them then strutted along, loudly voicing his thoughts. "Just who was that who sneaked in the royal bath? How could I find no lead to her?"

Hayami and Yuki just looked at each other nervously.

* * *

13th Prince Hiro

Hayami wandered around the estate that is supposedly her home for the past 2 years in hopes of not encountering any more princes. She had seen them enter house earlier together with Prince Sou but instead of greeting them, she hid for fear of being discovered by Prince Nagi. She was thankful that only Prince Nagi had seen her face and that Yuki didn't tattle on her, or Rin to be precise, sneaking into the princes' bath. She and Yuki reached the garden. It was beautiful and well-tended to.

"This estate is wide," she mused as she stopped to admire the flowers. "And this is a beautiful garden."

"Of course, my sister-in-law takes care of it," Hayami and Yuki both turned their heads to see the lady of the house, Rio, hiding beneath the plants. She immediately motioned for them to hush and join her. "Are you okay now, Rin? You still can't remember much?"

She nodded as she joined the long-haired blonde who was supposed to be her cousin. "What are you doing here, Lady Rio?"

"Waiting for one of them to fall into my trap, of course," she said as she motioned towards a building across them. Hayami realized it was Prince Sou's study where the princes were having a meeting. Both she and Yuki gasped when they saw a long thing crawling towards the open window.

"What? We've done worse together before," Rio looked at her. She looked at Yuki for an explanation.

"You cousins have a habit of pulling pranks on the princes when they come," Yuki explained to her in a whisper. Hayami closed her eyes in exasperation. Just how idiotic was her body host?

"Yes, that's true, that's why we immediately knew you'd do something like this even when Rin had just recovered from drowning," all three of them looked up to see a handsome orange-haired prince holding a rat by the tail in one hand and a long black cloth in the other. "Beautiful as always, Lady Rio. So do you want to move to my house instead?"

"Womanizing as always, Prince Hiro. And the answer is still no, I'm happy enough with my married life, **with your brother** ," Rio said as she stood up. Hayami and Yuki quickly followed and bowed their heads.

"Oh, Rin, how are you feeling now?" Hayami looked up at the most charming man of the empire.

"I'm okay now, Prince Hiro, just still can't remember things," she answered, doing her best to sound humble.

"So do you want to marry me instead?" Hayami let her eyes roll before raising her head to look at the prince.

"My answer is also still no, Prince Hiro, I'm happy enough right now, **in your brother's house** ," Rio laughed loudly at her retort.

"Hiro, if you've already accosted the perpetrators come back here, we're discussing something." Hiro quickly turned around and ran after waving at them, with Rio still laughing.

"Milady, how did you know you've rejected Prince Hiro before?" Yuki asked.

"I know that kind of face, if he was always here he'd definitely have asked every woman here at least once."

* * *

3rd Prince Aka

Hayami was a smart and tough girl. Nothing much fazed her and she was quick to adapt to changes too. Even if it was her body and time period that changed. She was in an absurd situation but there was no use fretting over it, after all, she had been thrown in the most dangerous period of the history of Japan. She had to figure out how to get back to her own body and time but she wondered how to do that. She couldn't tell anyone who she really is for fear of being called a lunatic. In such a feudal time where hierarchy matters the most and capital punishment is common, being outcast for being a lunatic would probably be worse than falling to Class E in Kunugigaoka Middle School.

However she didn't fully fear the worst happening to her. After all, Social Studies was her best subject and based on her knowledge, she was still doing well on keeping up the act.

"Come now, Rin, it's time to serve tea for the Princes, you can already join us, right?" Rio said, her face now serious and fit for the lady of the house. Hayami tensed. What she wanted most was to avoid the Princes, at the very least Prince Nagi. However she couldn't say any excuse. She had no choice but to follow Rio to the kitchen who immediately gave instructions to the servants. Soon they were marching to the study led by Rio, the servants trailing behind them carrying the tea and snacks.

Before they could reach the study, a red-haired handsome man came out from the study. His gait was lax, but he carried with him an air of authority.

"Prince Aka, are you leaving ahead of the others? We were just about to serve tea," Rio greeted with a smile on her face. Hayami noted that it seemed like a practiced smile.

"Yes, unfortunately, I have things to attend to in the palace. It's a pity I won't be able to enjoy your renowned tea, Lady Rio," Hayami tensed again when she felt the man gaze at her. "Ah, Rin, right? The one who drowned but came back alive."

Hayami raised her head to acknowledge the prince but she felt herself shudder when she met gold eyes. Prince Aka smiled at her and for a moment she thought it was a devil's smile. He bade goodbye and marched on. When he passed by her, Hayami clutched her skirt tightly. He didn't do anything to her but Hayami felt genuinely scared.

"Milady, are you okay?" Yuki asked her when she started to sway even though she was just standing.

"I'm feeling dizzy again," she admitted in a low voice.

"Don't join us today, I'll explain it myself. Yuki, bring Rin back to her room," Rio commanded. Yuki quickly followed and guided her back to her room.

Hayami sat on her bed and clutched her forehead. Her history lessons came flooding in her mind. The most important part about Emperor Souma's reign was that the battle for the throne between the brothers was bloody, and among them, there was one who was known to mercilessly kill his brothers for his own ambition. She wondered why she couldn't remember who it was suddenly. Her thoughts went back to Prince Aka's piercing eyes. 'Could he be?' she thought with a shudder.

* * *

8th Prince Sou

It was already night time when Hayami woke up. Yuki brought her dinner in her room and she ate silently, feeling awkward with having an attendant watch her as she eat. Yuki only left her after she had finished bathing.

Having slept for majority of the day, at least for the day she was in Rin's body, Hayami didn't feel sleepy despite the night. She silently went out of her room. It was dark inside the large house, Hayami figured everyone was sleeping already.

Hayami tried to walk as silently as possible until she reached outside. She continued wandering around the estate until she got to the garden again. She admired the clear night sky. The stars were shining brightly and Hayami thought there seems to be more of them here than in modern Japan. She heard what she thought were crickets and the sounds started to seem like a tune to her. She suddenly remembered jazz dancing and felt like dancing. She danced to the nighttime sounds, not noticing that across the garden, inside the study, someone else was still up and awake in the estate. Such someone had silver hair and a tall lean body, the 8th Prince Sou, master of the house and Rin's in-law.

He was working into the night when he caught a whiff of orange-brown hair from the slightly ajar window of his study. Hayami by then was already deeply absorbed in her dance and hadn't notice him watch her. She didn't notice either when he started drawing her and getting absorbed by it. Out of all the princes, Prince Sou had been the less inclined in battle and more into arts.

He had completely forgotten that he was working on something else until he tried to get a better view discreetly and failing at it, his head knocking on the window causing his sketchbook to fall out. Hayami stopped and turned around sharply.

"Uh, I, uh, didn't mean to disturb you, and uh, I didn't mean to watch you," Prince Sou tried to explain. He didn't know whether to pick up the sketchbook or not.

Hayami didn't know whether to be mad or to be embarrassed. She just stared at the tall guy who decided to come out through the window.

"Ah, Prince Sou, I'm sorry, I didn't realize you were still in your study," she immediately bowed to him. She finally noticed that she was only wearing her innerwear as she did not bother to change when she went out of her room earlier. She felt her cheeks flush. 'Great, be caught dancing a sensual dance (at least for this era) in sleepwear, he'd probably think you're a perv,' she chastised herself.

"It's okay," Prince Sou decided to just pick up the sketchbook. Hayami watched him and stayed glued to her spot. Her eyes narrowed when she saw the drawing. It was definitely her, her back to be precise, in one of the dance moves. He picked it up and when he looked back at her, he realized she had seen it. They both stayed silent for a few seconds. "So, uhm, what were those moves? A crow interpretative dance?"

* * *

Crown Prince Yuu

The following morning Yuki came to wake her up for breakfast. She felt anxious when she was told that she'd be joining the whole family for breakfast. There was only Prince Sou, his wife Lady Rio, and his sister Princess Touka in the family but after last night's encounter, Hayami didn't know how to face the prince. All she knew was that the mood last night felt bizarre.

She was last to arrive at the dining area and she felt ashamed. Prince Sou tried to keep a straight face, Lady Rio greeted her warmly, and Princess Touka regarded her with a calculated smile. "So this is Rin?" she said.

"Of course she is, she's been with us for 2 years, Touka," Prince Sou answered as Hayami took her seat beside Rio.

"I feel like I'm looking at another person," Touka said. Hayami thought Touka looked friendly enough, but she seemed like the type to be calculating everything in the back of her mind. She also felt like there should be something she should remember in history about the well-endowed princess but she couldn't quite pinpoint what it was even about.

"Rin, we're all going to visit the palace today, do you want to go too?" Rio butted in, effectively dismissing Touka.

"Huh? Ah yeah, sure," she nodded as she ate. They continued to eat in silence. Hayami did her best to be discreet as she examined the family.

It was a fairly young family. Prince Sou was only 22 years old, Rio was 23, and Princess Touka was only 18. Hayami had already figured out that she and Rin were of the same age at 14 years old. Hayami's thoughts wandered to the other princes she met yesterday. Prince Aka was 24, Prince Tomo was 21, the others Hayami didn't know but she knew they were all teenagers. Hayami briefly wondered who had come up with the concept of 'age of majority' when all the people here in the past seemed to take roles without regard for age.

They went to the palace afterwards and Hayami gasped to see it in real life. 'This isn't the same as the Imperial Palace in the present. The capital was moved to Tokyo sometime after,' she said to herself.

"Halt!" they all turned to see a young man in armor dismount from a horse. "Oh, is that you, Sou?"

"Yuu-nii, you've arrived," Prince Sou gave a courteous smile at his eldest brother who immediately approached them. "How was your latest trip?"

"Bloody as usual," Crown Prince Yuu replied with a dejected smile. However he put on a happy smile when he turned to the ladies with his brother. "Ah, Lady Rio, it's been a while. And Touka, how are you doing?"

"Your Highness, I've been well," Hayami noted Touka's seeming distance from her eldest brother.

"I heard you won another battle for peace, Your Highness," Rio replied.

"She is my wife's cousin, Rin, she's been staying with us," Prince Sou introduced her. She gave a humble bow. The prince had an antenna-like hair sticking out among his hair and it amused Hayami when it moved as the prince gave her a curt nod with a smile.

Hayami almost felt herself blush. No history book she had ever read mentioned that the crown prince, who would later become Emperor Yuu, was this handsome. Unlike the princes she had met yesterday, this one carried an air to him that seemed friendly, charming, manly, and dignified all at the same time. He looked like he could do anything too.

"That reminds me, when will the wedding push through, Your Highness?" Rio asked. "You've been engaged to Lady Megu since last year."

"About that, it's just too complicated," the prince sighed. "We've been trying to hold the wedding several times but it's hard when you both have people who idolize you to the point they would fight each other. It seems Lady Megu's supporters aren't ready to let her go yet. That and the fact that I'm being sent here and there for battles and talks."

"The Crown Prince is back in the palace, I definitely saw him! Your Highness!" they heard a wave of screams erupt from the beyond the palace gates.

"Oh damn, they're here, gotta run! Royal guards, don't let them in!" the Crown Prince hastily ran inside the palace and they were left to gape at the commotion.

"Well, who would really like to let the most perfect prince get married?" Prince Sou commented as they watched the guards do their best to hold back what Hayami would describe as fangirls.

"What crazy times we are in! When even commoners dare think they have a right to the Crown Prince," Princess Touka dryly remarked, obviously not amused by the events. "Don't they think the Crown Prince deserves no less than the near-perfect Lady Megu?"

"But the Crown Prince has to marry soon lest he lose his title," Rio said.

"He'll marry this year," Hayami uttered which made the three look at her. Hayami stared into space as she once again remembered an important point in history. 'The Crown Prince will be wed and Emperor Souma will die this year. Crown Prince Yuu will become Emperor this year!'

* * *

14th Prince Ito

The three allowed her to roam around the palace while they met with the Emperor. She wasn't really paying attention to her surroundings as she walked for she was still deep in thought about Crown Prince Yuu's reign. 'Prince Yuu and Lady Megu will be a good emperor and empress, but their reign will be short, it'll be a bloody battle between the brothers.'

Try as she might, though, she still couldn't remember just who it is who will emerge victorious. She had given up on thinking when she realized she had reached the archery range.

There was no one around but there was a neglected bow and a quiver of arrows. The practicing archer might have left in a hurry. Intrigued, she let her hand feel the bow. She had never touched a bow before but she knew this was totally different from the modern one. She tried raising it but realized it was a tad bit heavy for her though she could manage it. She looked around once more before taking an arrow. Unfamiliar with the weapon, she fumbled with positioning her hands and aimed at the target. She took a shot and it nearly missed. She then smirked. She had already figured out the weapon. She won't miss the next one. She took another arrow and fired. 'Bullseye!' she grinned.

"No use running away, little prince, it's payback for all those times you humiliated us in the market," Hayami was sure there were people beyond the palace walls. She ran to where the voices were closest to which led her to a huge tree blocking a wall. She wondered what she should do when she heard fighting and by instinct she knew someone was outnumbered there. She looked around and saw that there was still no one in sight.

"Ugh!" she grunted then started climbing the tree. She reached a high enough branch to see that she was right, there were people fighting outside the palace walls. She was right on the money too that someone was outnumbered, 5 to 1. That someone happened to be white-haired, and though wearing commoner garb, she recognized him as the youngest imperial prince. "Oi, you guys do realize you're fighting a prince 5 to 1 just beside the palace, don't you?"

They all looked up to her with surprise in their eyes. "It's our problem with the prince, don't interfere, young lady."

Hayami raised the bow and aimed at them in response.

"You can't scare us with that, we're sure all you know is how to make tea, young lady," and the other men laughed.

"You really shouldn't underestimate a girl, I don't care if we're in the Sengoku period or the 21st century," she said and took a shot. It was enough to rip a part of the leader's robe. "For the next shot, I will make sure you'll all have to go home exposed. Leave!"

She backed her threat by holding more arrows, intending to fire it all at once, though she wasn't really sure she could manage multiple accurate shots. Looking at her serious face, it was enough for the men to run off.

"You're a better archer than me," Hayami looked at the prince who was changing his clothes right in front of her, causing her to look away immediately. "It's okay, you can look."

"Don't get the wrong idea. I only saved you because I didn't want to be charged with treason," Hayami went down from the tree, smoothened her clothes and walked away, not noticing the blush that crept up on Prince Ito's cheeks.

* * *

4th Prince Ryuu

Upon returning to Prince Sou's house, Rio was immediately busy. She instructed some servants to go out to the market for there was an important guest arriving soon. Intrigued, Hayami joined the servants in going out.

She strolled at ease. She had seen the busy traditional market in movies before but it was livelier in real life, perhaps because of the upcoming feast.

"Make way! The 4th Prince is arriving!" suddenly there was a commotion and the lively mood of the market turned somber.

Hayami looked around as the people hurriedly tried to clear the road as wide as possible, and she noticed they seemed scared.

"Milady, you should stay at the side," Yuki found her and hastily pulled her aside.

"Yuki, what's happening? Why all this for the 4th Prince?" she asked as she strained her neck to see what was arriving. If it was a prince, then all this commotion seemed excessive than the usual welcome.

"The 4th Prince is…" Yuki hesitated as she explained in a hushed voice. "Known by another name: the merciless wolf. They say he kills without regard and no mercy can be seen in his face when he does."

"He's coming!" someone shouted as the sound of horse hooves running gradually came closer. Everyone looked at the black horse carrying a man whose face couldn't be seen, then bowed their heads, except Hayami who kept staring. And so no one else noticed when an innocent child ran through the market straight towards the bridge over by the river.

Hayami looked back at the approaching horse and the child who was approaching the edge of the bridge. She bit her lip and ran towards the child. "Milady!"

"Oh, my baby!" the child's mother ran too and Hayami managed to pick up the child and give it to her before said child reached the edge. "Thank you, young lady. Now we should stand aside, the prince is coming."

The mother ran to the nearest market stall, covering the mouth of the crying child. Hayami was just about to too, however she tripped at a rock she hadn't noticed. She was still at the foot of the bridge then and she knew it was too late for her to stir her body around to avoid falling to the river below. She closed her eyes to wait for the impact as the sound of urgent hooves and dust approached her place.

Next thing she knew, she was scooped up by the waist. She opened her eyes but had to cough at all the dust that came flying towards her. The horse made no pause as she met face to face with the man who scooped her up. 'A mannequin?' she briefly thought. However Yuki's words came back to her and Hayami understood why this man was called a merciless wolf. No one could see his expression because half of his face was covered by his dark hair. Hayami remained staring at him as she tried to remember what his name was. And then her eyes widened.

'It's him. The ruthless emperor, 4th Prince Ryuu!'

* * *

A/N: There, I hoped you liked the encounters of Hayami with the princes. A few notes on the imperial family: I based most of the royal family structure on how it was in Scarlet Heart: Ryeo, the princes are mostly of different mothers some of which may be noble and some of which may be part of the royal harem; also the princes are all portrayed by AssClass characters and I used the first two syllables of their first names with the exception of Prince Aka (Akabane); I also decided to pity Sugino and make Kanzaki the one pining for him this time; lastly, I think if Itona would have a crush on a female classmate, it would most likely be Hayami as he seems to have the same ideal type as Okajima, which is why I decided to choose him as the 14th Prince. I'd be updating this a week from now, until then, I hope you liked this and leave me a review too!


	2. Moon Lovers

Scarlet Heart: Koro  
(Chiba x Hayami)

Disclaimer: I don't, and never will I, own Ansatsu Kyoushitsu/Assassination Classroom. I don't own Scarlet Heart/Bu Bu Jing Xin either. This plot also does not mention anything historically accurate. Though set in historical Japan, everything about the emperors and princes mentioned are made up. I did not bother to research about historical figures in Japan.

A/N: Hi, I know that this chapter is way too late but if you're still reading this then thank you. Let me warn you though, the chapter before this was just a prologue and this is the real story. It's really long and really fast-paced, I hope you still enjoy it though.

* * *

Hayami stiffens as she realizes that she's at the mercy of the one prince her history lessons warned her about, the ruthless future Emperor Ryuu, who kills his brothers for the throne. Mixed emotions washed over her. Overwhelmed, she stared at him. She remembered there was no confirmed portrait of him in any history resource. He had a small resemblance to Prince Aka, his full older brother, but his aura wasn't the same. They both carried an air of authority, but there was something in Prince Ryuu that she couldn't pinpoint yet. Hayami became curious if he had the same eyes as Prince Aka or Ito beneath the curtain of hair that didn't allow a peek despite the movement due to the horse.

She was completely absorbed in studying his features that she didn't feel him stare back at her with curiosity. And then in an abrupt moment, he dumped her to the ground. At least she landed on her butt, thanks the heavens for the layered traditional clothing. She immediately glared at him, who had only paused for a second before moving on again. He paused to give her one thing: an amused yet condescending smile. Hayami then knew what it was with him; if Prince Aka was a cunning demon, Prince Ryuu was a fierce beast.

* * *

Hayami's luck just didn't seem to run out that day. It turns out the guest they were expecting was none other than the 'accursed brute,' as Hayami preferred to call Prince Ryuu. She was still glaring at him after being introduced when Rio followed up by announcing that he will be staying in their house while at the capital.

"That damn brute!" Hayami blurted out as she kicked on air. She was at the garden, running here after excusing herself from the tense dinner with the family and guest.

"I'm not familiar with your words but I do understand you're cursing me," Hayami whipped her head and saw the very reason for her irritation. "Is that any way to talk about a prince?"

"I think you should apologize to me first. Was that any way to handle a person?" Hayami retorted with slanted eyes.

"I believe I should be thanked for saving you," his smug demeanor only served to tick the normally cool Hayami more. Without thinking, her right foot flew and kicked his left leg.

"There's my gratitude for throwing me," she stared down at him as he clutched his leg. However Hayami wasn't prepared when he looked up and his expression totally darkened.

He raised his head and glowered above her, reminding Hayami of a beast. "I will apologize, but you'll have to die immediately after," he said, his voice cold and his hand ready to unsheathe his sword.

"Milady!" Hayami felt her hitched breath go free at the call of her attendant's voice. Thinking quickly, she immediately darted off while the prince was distracted, pulling Yuki inside the mansion.

* * *

"You what, milady? You laid a hand on a prince?" Yuki almost let go of the clothes she was holding. She placed it on a chair and sat on the edge of the bath Hayami was currently in.

"I was so irritated at him, I did it without thinking," she said, gritting her teeth. Even she wanted to slap herself. It was still hard for her to remember that she was in the feudal times. "He seemed mad, how do I avoid him? Wait, why's he even staying here instead of the palace? He's the empress' son after all."

"We don't really know the reason, all we know is he was sent when he was at our age to be adopted by one of the king's consorts ruling over a city by the border. They say the empress herself is scared of the face underneath the 4th Prince's hair," Yuki explained in a hushed voice. "You should be careful around him, milady."

"I know, now that's two princes I have to avoid," Hayami dejectedly said. "Should I skip breakfast tomorrow?"

* * *

"Ah, if it isn't the young lady archer," Hayami whipped her head to see the five bandits she had chased away from Ito before. "But it looks like you don't have a bow tonight."

She had been enjoying (as much as her serious face allowed) the festival in the city with Yuki, Rio having allowed her to roam instead of joining her watch the princes' performance at the palace. Hayami was taking a break and asked Yuki to buy something to drink.

"Did you want me to make you go home naked tonight?" she greeted icily, keeping her face stoic. Any sign of weakness and she knew she's dead meat.

"I think you should be worried whether you'll go home at all tonight, young lady," the leader said with a sinister smile. He nodded at his lackeys and they quickly captured her, immediately sealing her lips, her hands and her feet.

They dragged her to the outskirts of the city and into the nearby woods, unnoticed by the festival crowd. She thrashed all the way but they kept a firm hold on her until they dropped her, the leader putting out a bow. "I think we should pay you back, young lady."

Hayami almost rolled her eyes. 'First rule of kidnapping, keep her bound,' she thought. Before the leader could fire a shot at her, she immediately leapt out of the now-lax hold the lackeys had on her and managed to kick one of them while tugging at another to use as a shield. She used that as leverage to kick at the other two coming from behind her then pushed her human shield towards the leader and leapt, successfully snatching the bow and a single arrow from the leader. She immediately shot the string of the quiver on the leader and snatched those too. End result: she was now aiming a bow at the huddled bandits. She gave them a few warning shots before starting to run backwards.

She was running towards the direction of the city she remembered from the route the bandits took earlier, when she heard the sound of swords clashing. She reached the site of several masked men encircling two enemies.

"Prince Sou!" she exclaimed upon recognizing silver hair. The two looked at her and she realized the other was Prince Ryuu.

"Rin! What are you doing here?" before Hayami could answer however, one of the masked men moved to charge at her instead. She shot at the foot of said man, shocked when she drew blood. Sou fought as he tried to reach her. "Explain it later, get away from here now!"

She tentatively nodded and shot at those who turned to her. Sou did his best to fend them off to give her time to escape.

"Don't let any of them get away!" Ryuu yelled out as more of the enemies dropped.

"Rin!" Sou yelled when one of them managed to slip by him and reach her. She looked back and fired a shot, hitting an arm. She fully stopped and aimed her arrow at the man's heart. His eyes darted off to another direction at the recognition that he will be killed. Hayami knew he was planning his escape route.

"I said don't let any of them get away! Kill him!" Ryuu yelled again. Hayami's hands trembled as she held the bow. She could shoot and even if the man moves, she knew she could finish him. 'However…' Hayami closed her eyes. Hayami couldn't fire the bow even if to direct at another part. Next thing she knew, the man had run off and she was faced with a menacing 4th Prince. "If you couldn't kill, you shouldn't have joined the battle."

"Stop it, Ryuu! I'll take care of here, run after him." "Don't order me around, I'm still older!" "Then act like an older brother!"

Ryuu ran off to give chase with a grunt, leaving a trembling Hayami and Sou to fight off the remaining enemies. Hayami couldn't lift her bow anymore. She fell on her knees and didn't realize the last enemy remaining right in front of her was charging at her. Sou managed to slash his last one in time to see the person charging at his ward. He leapt towards Hayami from the back, his sword forward.

"Don't look," he said as his left arm wrapped around her head, his hand covering her eyes, while his other hand held out his sword past her, stabbing the foe right in the heart. Sou crashed onto her, but he didn't let go of her head and they stayed like that for a while, dead bodies around them.

Slowly, she peeled Sou's hand from her eyes. Her eyes closed immediately upon seeing the corpse in front of her.

"Are you injured anywhere, can you walk?" Sou asked her. She just shook her head. "We should go."

Sou grabbed her by the shoulders and willed her to stand. While uninjured, her knees felt weak. He guided her out of the woods and it was only when she saw buildings that she finally had the strength to walk on her own. They walked silently through the now silent city.

"Were you not... scared when you killed those people, Prince Sou?" Hayami asked in a low voice.

"No," was his nonchalant reply. It came as a surprise for Hayami. Unlike his brothers, Prince Sou's job was ministerial rather than battle. He struck her as a battle-avoider. "I'm more scared of what could happen if I don't kill the enemies in front of me. Rin, I'm a prince, I have to be strong or else I won't be able to protect anyone, not my family, not this empire."

He allowed that to sink in for a while before speaking again. "I was young when I first killed. Our house was attacked and I watched my mother die protecting me and Touka. If I didn't fight back and kill our attackers, they'd take Touka too. Princes are always in danger, Rin. That's why we have to be able to kill so that you, our family, won't have to kill." He paused once more then cleared his throat. "So why were you in the woods? And I didn't know you were good with a bow."

"Ah, bandits. I chased them away from Prince Ito before," she explained. "What were those masked men? You and the other princes were supposed to be in a performance, right?"

"They suddenly intruded on us to kill the crown prince. They failed, Ryuu and Yuu-nii switched places without anyone knowing," Sou answered.

Before Hayami could ask more, they had reached the estate where a frantic Lady Rio was waiting, her face calm but her feet restless. Upon seeing her two closest family's states, her calm façade broke. "What happened to you two? Are you injured anywhere?" She didn't know who to check on first.

"I'm really fine-" Sou tried to soothe his worrying wife but Rio karate chopped his arm. "Ow!"

"Get inside. Now." Rio ordered sternly when she hit a stab wound, blood staining her hand. "Yuki, tend to Rin in her room."

Hayami shook her head in amusement at the odd couple. She and Yuki were just about to follow inside the house when someone suddenly grabbed her arm, yanking her back. She was met with the darkest face she had ever seen in Prince Ryuu.

"You," he said. He then looked at the gaping attendant, motioning for her to leave them alone. Faced with a prince, Yuki didn't really have a choice but to obey. Ryuu dragged Hayami towards the garden. "A traitor was not captured because of you."

Ryuu had always been threatening but he was never frantic. However tonight he seemed like he wanted to lash out at everything, at anything. He seemed like he was barely holding it in, his grip on her arm felt like he wanted to fling her around.

"I apologize for hindering your mission but I won't apologize for not being able to kill," she calmly replied as she pried his left hand away from her arm. "Blood…"

Ryuu's gaze fell to her hand and arm that was covered with blood that came from his grasp. "Yes, blood of those I killed tonight. Should I add yours?"

"You're injured," Hayami grabbed his left forearm and true enough, his sleeve fell revealing a large cut. "You should treat this first."

"I just said I'd kill you why are you more concerned about a puny cut when you should be scared for your life?"

"I know you won't kill me, you won't protect anyone by killing me. But this," Hayami waved the arm she was holding. "It needs to be treated."

Ryuu wrestled his arm out of her grasp, pushing her away in the process. She tripped, her hand holding him pulling him down with her. When Hayami opened her eyes, she didn't expect to see the most important of secret of the Sengoku period, 4th Prince Ryuu's naked eyes. Ryuu, upon realizing this, looked away, a hand swiftly covering back his eyes.

Hayami had only seen it for a full second, but she saw enough. Ryuu's eyes were sharp, his gaze intense, as if it won't miss anything it captures. Through them, she saw Ryuu meeting his mother in the palace, who regarded him as if he was some scary creature, and the brief flashing of longing, anger, remorse, and finally, fear.

She wanted to reach out and brush away his bangs to look at them once more, but she still had the mind to remember just how many times she had already offended the prince.

"Did you come from the palace to report?" she asked in a soft voice. He just nodded in reply. It was all she needed to understand him. She prodded him to back away so that they could stand up. "You should really tend to your-"

"Ryuu-nii! Are you hurt anywhere? Let's go inside so that I could tend to you," Princess Touka came running to them, and they hastily stepped away from each other. She immediately guided Ryuu back, throwing Hayami a short look that the latter couldn't tell if it was a glare.

Hayami followed them with her eyes, feeling like she wanted to stop them for whatever reason and that nagging thought that there was something she was forgetting about Touka.

* * *

'Why can't he just stay at home for lunch?' Hayami thought as she clenched her jaw. When she had breakfast that morning, she was relieved that the 4th Prince was not present as usual. However a stern Lady Rio, a group of scared servants, and a heavy lunch box somehow resulted to lunch delivery delegated to her. 'I thought he was supposed to be a wolf, not a monkey.' It was bad enough that the 4th Prince was up on a hill near their estate, but a lunch box for a prince was like a luxurious picnic basket for a whole family.

She found him perched on top of the roots of a shady tree. He turned to look at her, regarding the lunch box she was carrying, and motioned for her to leave it there. She dropped it beside him, turned to leave, then sat down under the same tree.

"I'll need to bring that back and I'm still tired from climbing up anyway," she said simply. She didn't face him but she heard the rustle of the lunch box being taken out.

"Do I still need to apologize to you?" he then spoke out after a long silence.

"Did you want to live there?" she asked instead, gesturing the palace which they can clearly see from where they were. He didn't answer her either. "How long had it been?"

"8 years."

"You were my age," Hayami wanted to pity the prince but she knew he wouldn't want that. She could just imagine how hard it must have been to be sent away by a possibly uncaring mother. She wondered what he went through that he became the wolf he's came to be known today. 'You'll definitely live there again,' she couldn't tell him.

"Why were you not scared of me last night?" he asked the question she felt was most puzzling to him.

"There was nothing I saw that should scare me," she answered, trying not to address the prince's source of anxiety directly. Maybe one day, they'll talk about his eyes more freely. She shuddered at the feeling that they'd talk more often from here on.

"Where did you learn how to use a bow?" he asked, his voice lighter.

"Ah, just picked it up when I saw one lying around. Pity there's no practice area in the estate," they were going down the hill now and Hayami almost wanted to throw the heavy lunch box at the prince walking ahead of her. 'I knew it, he's actually really merciless,' she thought as she gritted her teeth.

* * *

When Hayami (unwillingly) agreed to bring Prince Ryuu's lunch, she didn't sign up for it to be a daily thing. But the prince seemed to actually have this sadistic side to him as everybody says, she feels like he was eating lunch on the hill on purpose. It meant many opportunities for them to talk and though their conversations were always short due to their similar non-talkative natures, strangely enough, Hayami found them a comfort in this crazy soul-switch-time-travel thing.

"You use a bow too?" she couldn't help but pry when she approached him and saw his bow.

"I'm better at it than a sword, actually," he said, his tone comfortable. He then raised it and aimed above, hitting the highest fruit on the tree, said fruit landing smack dab in his hand. Her mouth couldn't help falling agape at his accuracy. "Want to try?"

Lest he retract his offer, Hayami took the bow immediately. She tried aiming at another fruit but slipped.

"Lean your head closer, relax your shoulders," he instructed, eating as he watched her.

The bow had been the most interesting thing for Hayami ever since she got sent here but in a period where girls were expected to stay at home and learn the art of flower arranging and tea making, she couldn't really voice it out even with her cousin. Prince Ryuu however didn't seem to mind nor judge her for it; instead, it became their common point, something that could keep them in a conversation longest. With the bow between them, Hayami could put away the thought of him killing his own brothers.

* * *

"There you are," Hayami let out a small gasp when Prince Ryuu's emotionless voice called out. He opened the slightly ajar window to Prince Sou's study and entered through that. "I thought you'd be in the garden."

"Prince Sou wouldn't take kindly to you stepping your shoes in here, don't you think?" she replied as she placed down the book she was reading.

"I'm moving to the palace," he said as he picked up the same book. "History?"

"I'm thankful there aren't romance novels here," she replied. "For good?"

He nodded as he placed down the book. Hayami felt the hesitant excitement he was probably hiding.

"Are you... sure you'll be okay there?" she asked. Being allowed back in the castle was probably his reward for saving the crown prince, but she knew the empress wouldn't take kindly to it.

"It should be better than being sent to a wolf den," he answered and they both fell silent at the unfortunately true joke.

"Then don't treat the people there as wolves, don't threaten to kill them every now and then," she said as she thought of him killing his brothers. Her well-meaning joke was appreciated, based on the slight smile on the prince's face.

"But I think it's good manners to tell your landlord first such news, don't you think?" they both looked out the window and saw Rio running a hand on the flowers. "Prince Ryuu, I wondered why the servants said you arrived but headed straight for the garden. Well anyway, I expect you to join the family dinner tonight, got it?"

She turned away and the two at the study looked at each other. "You should comply with her request at least once," Hayami remarked then turned to leave the room, calling out to a servant to clean the floor Ryuu's shoes had stepped on. Ryuu on the other hand made his exit the same way he entered.

* * *

"I'm what?" Hayami stood with the most baffled expression her stoic face could muster in front of the family.

"I was really taken by surprise too, it seems there's unrest over the southern region your family rules," Prince Sou explained. He was clearly troubled too at the news he had to bring home: Hayami was to become one of the royal consorts of the emperor to secure ties with her (or Rin's) and Rio's family. It wasn't a very powerful family but nevertheless holds power over a certain region. Unfortunately, she was the only remaining daughter.

"I'm fourteen," she emphasized. She tried thinking whether something like this occurred in history as she remembers it. There was none, or maybe it wasn't too important. "Will I be exiled or hanged if I refuse?"

"There's no refusal to this, I'm afraid," Prince Sou said with remorse. "I'll do what I can to convince the emperor, don't worry. I have to leave, Tomo and I have work to do."

He lightly patted Rio's shoulders before leaving them. Rio just gave a worried nod in response.

"My husband will do everything he can, I promise," she said as she held Hayami's hands.

"There's no way out of this one except marriage to someone else," Touka coldly stated. "Will my brother take Rin to be his 2nd wife then?"

Rio gave her sister-in-law a sharp glare. Hayami looked at the two curiously.

"Oh, right, you don't have your memories. The same thing has happened to Lady Rio, but my brother married her to save her from it," Touka then turned to Hayami as she stood up to leave. "That's why I'm telling you, the only way is to marry someone else if you don't want to be consort number who knows."

Hayami turned to Rio after the princess left the room. Her cousin seemed calm. "Don't worry about her. It's not that she hates me as a person, she just hates that her brother didn't marry advantageously for the crown. But what she did say is right, the only way around this without treachery is marriage to another. Do you want to marry Prince Nagi instead?"

Her jaw almost dropped. Of all the princes, her cousin had to suggest the most questionable to be a groom.

"Rin! We heard about it, are you okay?" and said prince just had to arrive at that point too. Hiro, Ito, and Ryuu were with him, the latter being dragged by Ito by the sleeve. Hayami looked at the 4 brothers. Save for the latter, the youngest three became her friends somehow, Ito with her saving him once, Hiro because he was just too friendly with women, and Nagi because he was actually friendly and she found him fun to tease. Ryuu had barely gotten along with his brothers. The youngest three were afraid of him but somehow mustered the courage to talk to him when they found the two of them talking comfortably once.

"Rin, do you want to marry me instead?" Hiro offered. Ito immediately bonked his head with whatever toy/contraption he was holding.

"Prince Ryuu, you're the only one not yet married among the older princes, do you want to propose marriage to my cousin?" Rio teasingly asked. Ryuu immediately glared at her, they couldn't see, but they knew he was.

"You all don't get it," Hayami interjected. "I don't want to get married."

"We've come to take Lady Rin, 5th daughter of-"

"Rin, you have to run away!"

"We'll do what we can here," the three younger princes all went in front of her, swords drawn.

"Sheath your swords, princes, if you interfere with a royal summon, you'll be labeled a traitor," Rio sternly said as she pushed past all of them to face the guests. "Rin, there is not much I can do for you at this point, but running away will just make it worse, I once considered that option too."

Hayami nodded and got up to follow Rio. Ryuu stopped her before she reached the door. "Are you sure?"

Hayami looked up at him even though she can't see his eyes. She gave him a small but grateful smile, looking at the other princes too. "I'll think about it when I get there. If I end up living there, I guess I'll see you all around. Yuki, look after my cousin."

She was taken to the imperial harem, the current chief court lady welcoming her. The chief was well-endowed, much more than Princess Touka, and was elegantly beautiful. "Welcome to the imperial harem, I am Rina, the Chief Lady-in-waiting, please follow me," the woman bowed to her however Hayami thought that Rina seemed strict, even looking down on her.

Hayami didn't have time to intake everything for as soon as she stepped into her designated room, Rina instructed the lower court ladies to strip her. "You are not touching a single hair on me. What are you doing?"

"Imperial harem rules, Lady Rin, your whole body is to be checked for any scar," Rina answered in an equally cold voice. "We have to prepare you for the wedding night, your wedding is already set for tomorrow."

"Tomorrow? That's fast," Hayami's eyes grew wide for a second. "You don't need to prepare me, there is no wedding that will be held tomorrow. I will not allow myself to be sold like this."

Rina stared at her deeply, as if she was studying her, and no one said a word for a while. She then averted her eyes and ordered the court ladies to strip her again. Her body was thoroughly checked then she was bathed, clothed, then left in her designated room.

Hayami didn't really have a plan. She was adjusting well enough to her new (or was it old) life and then suddenly this happens.

"It seems there's a group of people frantically trying to save you over at the palace," Rina stood by the doorframe holding a tray. "Pardon my intrusion, Lady Rin, I knocked but it seems you didn't hear me. I came to keep you company."

"What do you mean group of people?" she asked as she joined the court lady at the table.

"The princes, headed by 8th Prince Sou, I heard he even knelt as he asked the emperor to cancel the wedding," Rina answered as she poured tea into two teacups. "Most surprising is that even the 4th Prince was with him."

Hayami bit her lip. She didn't even realize she was just simply relying on Prince Sou convincing the emperor for her.

"Isn't there any other way around this?" she dared ask the court lady. "Other than marriage to another."

Rina seemed amused at her query. "It should be an honor to be selected as a wife to the emperor. If you bear him a son, you may even ask for your own estate."

"I'm only fourteen, I'm not even of marrying age yet."

"A woman is of marrying age as soon as she is able to bear children."

"Is that all a woman is supposed to do here in this period?"

"I'm afraid so, young lady. Your family sure is amusing. Lady Rio managed to escape too by marrying the 8th Prince," Rina then got up and bowed to her. "You must take a rest now, Lady Rin. I guess I should say congratulations on your wedding."

Hayami barely slept that night. When morning came a group of court ladies headed by Rina dressed her in traditional wedding garb and sent her to the wedding.

On her way to the great hall where the wedding was to take place, she met Prince Ryuu. He hesitatingly reached for her shoulder and gently tapped her, a gesture she recognized as an apology for not being able to do anything. They were like that when the emperor arrived coming from the opposite direction and Hayami stiffened. Ryuu turned around to see his father.

"What are you doing here outside, Ryuu?" the stern emperor asked when Ryuu stepped in front of her. "Are you still going on about cancelling this wedding? Why are you, Sou, Nagi, and Ito so adamant about this? Do I really need to call on punishment for you?"

A clanging sound followed by a stifled gasp took away the father and son's attentions to the girl behind said son. Ryuu's mouth went agape when he saw Hayami holding his dagger against her other arm, blood flowing. Hayami heaved as she tried to endure the pain.

"I can't be married to Your Majesty with a scar on my body now," she firmly stated. Ryuu slapped away the dagger from her hand and held her bleeding arm.

Emperor Souma almost admired the fourteen year old girl for her bravery.

"What do we do now, Your Majesty?" as Hayami felt her strength and consciousness fade, she looked at the attendant beside the emperor and suddenly the memory of the accident that brought her here came back to her.

* * *

"You're alive, you're unmarried, and you're still in the palace," was Rina's cold greeting when Hayami came to. She really ought to keep track of how many times she'd fainted ever since coming to this time period. She was a pretty athletic and healthy girl before. "But your punishment is waiting for you."

"Punishment?" Hayami knew what she did was an act of defiance to the emperor. She wondered if she'd be flogged, sent to slavery, or hanged.

She was brought in front of the emperor as soon as it was known that she had regained consciousness. All the princes were there too and they looked on with different reactions.

"Your Majesty, the poor girl is just 14 years old, can't we just send her back to the 8th Prince's household?" the attendant that was with the emperor last night was apparently the great advisor to the emperor.

"I'll take her under my wing, Your Majesty," everyone looked at the doors to see the head of the imperial harem, chief court lady Rina standing there, elegant and cold as always. "She is an intelligent girl, it would be a waste to put her on slavery."

Everyone in the hall murmured as the emperor and his imperial harem's head had a stare down. "Prince Sou, is what she says true?"

"Y-yes, Your Majesty, even with her loss of memory, Rin still did well with her studies, she spends most of her time in the study," Sou answered. Hayami was silently grateful the education here was also periods behind from the current century. Rin's teacher told her she was even better since losing her memory.

"All right, I shall allow it. I am sorry to your wife, Sou, but the young lady will not be coming back to your house," the emperor decreed.

"We're grateful enough for your graciousness, Your Majesty," Sou humbly replied.

Hayami was dismissed and Rina ordered her to follow. Most of the princes followed them too.

"Make no mistake, young lady, you might be a noble but you are now under my care, you have to follow all my orders as a common court lady," Rina said as soon as they were out. She then noticed the bunch of princes following them. "I will go ahead to the imperial harem, follow immediately as soon as you say your goodbyes."

Prince Sou was first to reach her, and though he did not reach a hand to her, he looked thoroughly relieved and apologetic. Hayami managed to smile at him. "I don't regret anything. Prince Sou, you should go and reassure my cousin now."

"Live well, Rin. Your cousin and I will try to visit the palace more often," Sou said before leaving.

"If it's any comfort, Rin, Nagi-nii and I are living in the palace so you still have us," Ito said with his cool but obviously affectionate tone.

"And also Ryuu-nii," Nagi added. Hayami looked over said prince who was standing at a distance from them.

"Nagi, Hiro, Ito, Ryuu-nii, Yuu-nii is calling for us," Tomo called them over. The three younger princes bade goodbye to her while Ryuu gave a nod to the 9th Prince's direction, telling them to go ahead.

He didn't say anything but turned and started walking. Hayami quickly surmised that he was headed for the imperial harem and was going to accompany her. She started to catch up to him but stayed a step behind him. They walked silently as Hayami tried absorbing yet another change in her life. He walked her right until they were in front of the building that housed the harem. They stayed like that for a moment, just taking in her new house. After a while they nodded at each other and Hayami took her first step to what she didn't know at that moment would be her home for the rest of her life.

* * *

As with the time she was thrown into this time period, Hayami was quickly able to adapt to her new living situation. She wasn't too into tea making but it was bearable, the shift from being the one attended to, to being the attendant not hard for her either. Crown Prince Yuu, through Prince Sou's request, also managed to grant her access to the royal library so that she could still study.

"You were given leave today, weren't you? Aren't you going to congratulate them?" Prince Ryuu nodded at the direction of the gazebo where the simple festivities for Prince Nagi's wedding was being held.

"Maybe later," she answered simply as she continued to watch from a distance. "That's another younger brother married before you."

"I'm…" he turned to her and she gazed back waiting for his answer. "...waiting."

She averted her eyes. "You should probably join them, Prince Ryuu."

He gave her a small smile and left her to join his brothers and give his gift to the newlyweds. Prince Nagi's bride was the pretty daughter of the army's general. She had green hair and was of small stature similar to the groom. She seemed like a sweet girl but it turns out she could even beat Prince Ito in martial arts.

Hayami continued to watch the new couple, somehow sad that one of the people she was comfortable with in the palace was now moving out. However when Ryuu approached them, Hayami was suddenly struck with another memory from her history lessons. 'Prince Ryuu will… kill the 10th Prince and his wife!' Hayami could almost imagine Ryuu doing the deed as she remembered a movie depiction of it she had seen. Hayami grasped the balustrade in front of her with trembling hands.

"I still don't understand why the general chose the 10th Prince to be his daughter's wife. Even the emperor forgot the 10th Prince was a prince," she turned with a start to the newcomer at her side. It was the great advisor of the emperor, the palace seer. He was actually quite young and handsome, at par with the princes, but also a pervert. But most important of all was that they had similar circumstances as Hayami soon figured out, that is, dying and coming back alive. If the advisor was from the future too, she didn't really know. "The 4th Prince seems to be comfortable with you, even more than with his brothers."

"Don't you feel weird seeing them get along like that knowing well what will happen in the future?" she asked back.

The advisor all but shrugged. "Say, young lady, you are friends with the 4th Prince, right? Then why are you so on guard with him?"

"You and I both know he will kill his brothers," she interjected.

"Why are you so quick to judge him based on other people's opinion towards him? Why don't you judge him as the person you see right now, not based on what future you know? You are his closest friend here, you know well what he can do for the empire," with that, the mysterious advisor left her there as her focus now fully shifted on the 4th Prince.

In reality, she had also been thinking how the person she could connect to the most here could turn into the ruthless emperor her history teacher told her about. Aside from his tendency to threaten death as a way to raise his defenses, Prince Ryuu had shown nothing but a boy longing for acceptance and freedom. Out of all the princes he actually seemed like the least to care about the throne, openly supporting the Crown Prince. He was intelligent too, oftentimes she'd run into him in the library reading and studying as if trying to make up for the years he was sent away.

"What he could do for the empire…" she uttered as she tried to remember what the important decrees of Emperor Ryuu were. She could only remember her history teacher who didn't seem to care much for the history at all, only stating details that should be memorized as they would come out on the tests. Was that someone whose judgment she should trust?

Hayami took a tentative step forward towards the gazebo. She kept her eyes trained on the 4th Prince who held a protective arm in front of the 10th Prince who was being teased by their brothers. 'I'm on my own here. From here on, I can only trust my own judgment.'

* * *

"Chief Rina said to have this before you go," Hayami said as she entered Prince Ryuu's chamber. She set down the tray in front of him and served him the herbal tea which he silently drank.

"Were you really… not scared of seeing my eyes?" he spoke hesitantly. He placed a hand underneath his bangs but couldn't get himself to brush it away from his eyes. Hayami tentatively reached out a hand, seeking permission to lay it on him which he granted by slowly removing his hand. Hayami brushed the hair away to reveal his eyes.

"It's the person underneath that's more important," she said as she gazed at him directly. They looked at each other's eyes, remembering the looks of distrust of the citizens as Ryuu marched yesterday, the I-knew-you-were-good-for-nothing look the empress gave her unfavored son, and the feeling of defeat and being so small. "Do the ritual, Prince Ryuu, believe in yourself so that others may believe in you too."

He nodded slowly and she helped him change into the ceremonial robes that should have been worn by the absent crown prince. As the 4th Prince stepped out, the thoughts of the future once again floated in Hayami's mind.

She smiled to herself and shook her head. She led the prince outside to the waiting palanquin. He tensed once again when they heard the distant voices of the citizens chanting for the rain ritual, waiting for the prince that was to lead them.

'The you in front of me right now, that's what I'll believe in,' she thought as she took a step forward to be right beside him, at which point they looked at each other again. 'Go, show them the person behind those eyes.'

He smiled in gratitude and finally took his seat on the palanquin. This time during the march, he didn't cower in fear even as the citizens looked at him with skepticism again. He held his head high as he led the ritual. Some citizens noticed the change in his demeanor just as tiny droplets of rain started to pour. More dropped as the prince reached the altar. By the time he finished the entire ritual, it had completely turned into a full downpour.

"The first rain in two months," Hayami said, a palm open to catch a few drops. She looked around and saw that the citizens were dancing in joy, praising the prince who was in their midst. Said prince seemed stunned at the attention, the first time there were people happy for his existence. Their eyes met and Hayami gave him a small smile. 'Don't forget this moment when people believed in you.'

* * *

Before Hayami realized it, she had already been in this time period for more than a year. Crown Prince Yuu and Lady Megu were finally wed. Emperor Souma died shortly after and Yuu succeeded his father with much controversy from the whole ministry and much to the ire of the empress who unsuccessfully tried to contest.

"You remember Chief Rina again, don't you?" Hayami turned to see Rio approaching her. "You usually visit me and stay in the garden when you do."

"She'd been my mother figure ever since I left this house," she answered. To everyone's surprise, Rina had used her final breath to appoint her as next Chief Lady-in-waiting. "So, no good news yet?"

"Be scared if there is, my husband's arrival from his month-long trip is still a few days from now," Rio said, a hand in her belly. Rio walked her to the gates of the estate at the end of her visit. "Looks like you have someone fetching you. Been a while, Prince Ryuu."

The waiting prince bowed politely at his sister-in-law. Hayami bade goodbye to her cousin and walked with the silent prince back to the palace.

"I'm replacing Tomo's post as chief of investigations," he spoke out.

"Ah, so he's now Minister of Internal Affairs," she recalled the prince wanted a ministerial post. "You won't be sent away much anymore."

"Still a busy job," he replied, they didn't say much after that, just continued walking to the palace.

"Rin! We've been waiting for you! Ito's here to give you your birthday present," a chirpy Prince Hiro and stoic Prince Ito were waiting for them at the palace.

"Can't you at least let me say that to her?" Ito snapped at his older brother then turned to face her, however avoided her eyes. "It's late because of my trip, but I got this for you."

She took the box and opened it to reveal a pretty hair ornament. "It's pretty, thank you, Prince Ito," she said.

"You just came back too, Ryuu-nii, what did you get her?" Hiro then asked the person beside her. That's when Ryuu froze and her mood turned dark. Hiro and Ito immediately realized the impending doom. "It's not… possible, right? You… forgot?"

"Ah, I-"

"I'm going in now, Your Highnesses," she said and marched inside, leaving the two to berate their older brother. Smiling to herself, she thought of how Ryuu had gone far from the distant brother he was. 'There was no way he would hurt his brothers, right?' Boy, was she wrong.

* * *

"Chief Rin, I'm sorry for intruding but this was the only place we thought of," it was the middle of the night when Rin opened her doors to a panting Prince Nagi and Lady Kaede. Making sure that no one else was present, she ushered the couple inside her room.

"We really didn't want to drag you into this, we're really sorry, Rin. We'll stay for 3 days only and then we'll sneak out to the harbor for a boat that will take us to Kaede's hometown," Nagi said.

"Prince Aka was most likely behind this, huh," she said. "I'll allow you two to hide here, that's the most I can do."

"It will be a war," Nagi spoke out as he stared into space. "This is what I get for not siding with anyone."

Hayami looked at the troubled prince with sympathy. The thing she was most scared of was starting to happen. The battle for the throne was on. The worst part is the person in the middle of it all is the chief of investigations: Prince Ryuu.

"Aka has started making his move," he sought her out the following day, clearly wanting some place to take a breather. "Nagi's clan, they've all been wiped out, Nagi and his wife are the only ones remaining."

"It's a frame up, isn't it? Because Prince Nagi implicitly refused to side with him?" Ryuu nodded. "If you find him, what are you planning to do?" she carefully asked. A convict caught while trying to escape is automatically sentenced to death.

"I don't know, I'm hoping to find him before any soldier does so that I can help him escape, it'll be abuse of power but I can't let him get caught like this," he said exasperatedly.

Hayami was scared of what she knew from the future. If she hands over the couple to Ryuu, they have a higher chance of escaping alive or they may die instantly at the hands of Ryuu.

"I have to go back to work, please be careful especially around Aka," Ryuu said and stood up. She watched him take a few steps until she took a deep breath and called out to him.

"Go to my room later tonight, make sure no one sees you," she said, eliciting a blush from the prince. "Not what you're thinking! I'll explain later, just come."

She hurriedly turned to go back to the harem to hide her blush. She returned to her room where the married couple was camping out and explained that she decided to bring Ryuu to help them hatch the escape plan. Kaede was worried but Nagi smiled at her and thanked her.

She knew Ryuu would be surprised seeing she had hidden Nagi and Kaede but she was more surprised when Ryuu sincerely thanked her.

"Thank you, for helping them," he held her shoulders with his head down, and she knew he was fighting tears. She instantly felt sorry for even doubting him.

They spent the night planning the escape for the couple. She will have to lead them to the secret tunnel in the royal bath while Hiro will prepare the horses for the two. Ryuu will direct the searching soldiers to a different path.

"Nagi-nii! Rin! We've been had, Aka-nii somehow realized the plan and has sent soldiers outside!" Hiro caught up with the three of them, sword drawn. He threw another at Nagi. "We'll have to turn back and try to outrun them. I'll try to create a diversion and clear a path for you two. Rin, buy me time by denying them access to the harem."

They all nodded and started running back when they heard the sounds on the other side of the secret tunnel. "What about Prince Ryuu?" "Ito ran to tell him to go back here to help us."

Upon reaching the inside of the harem building, Hiro immediately headed out through a window. Hayami asked the couple to hide inside the harem while she went outside and tried to fend off the soldiers.

"I am only under the direct orders of the emperor, I cannot allow you to rampage inside the harem," she calmly said as she stood guard in front of the door. "Your chief is not even here. You've rampaged inside the main palace already, didn't you? Who do you think will have to clean up that mess? And you want to mess the harem too?"

The soldiers were stumped, however she could only stall them for a short time.

"That's Lady Kaede!" her eyes widened as she followed where the soldiers ran off to. She went inside the harem to see Prince Nagi taking out his dagger.

"My wife ran out to create a diversion for me to flee," he said. He then looked at her seriously. "I can't allow that, Rin. I may be the weakest among the princes, but I've got a family to protect too."

She didn't know what went over her but she felt like stopping the prince. She held onto his arm which made him look at her in the eyes. He then smiled that calm, harmless smile of his and suddenly she was scared. Scared that the prince was going to his definite death and scared that he seemed not scared at all.

"You know, ever since you sneaked into the bath that day, I actually liked you. I was actually happy when Lady Rio wanted me to marry you to save you from the wedding. Take care of Ryuu-nii, Rin," he then fled out, leaving her light grasp. She froze on her spot, just letting her eyes follow the fleeing prince. 'I knew,' she sadly thought.

The sound of approaching steps snapped her out of her trance. She went out of the harem again and saw Ryuu and several other soldiers pass by, running to where Hiro, Kaede and Nagi had ran towards. She quickly followed.

"Kaede!" the moment Ryuu arrived at the scene, a soldier managed to stab Kaede fatally. Nagi, in a burst of anger, managed to strike down the soldier he was fending off and leap to the bloody body of his wife who managed to smile at him before her last breath. "Kaede!"

Everything stilled as the wailing prince screamed his lungs out. An arrow then fled, striking Nagi in the shoulder.

"Nagi!" Ryuu cried out as he leapt to deflect the blade of a soldier who attempted to take advantage of the moment. A hand at his ankle stopped him.

"Ryuu-nii, I'm sorry, I'm really sorry, but please…" Nagi pleaded as he still held on to his dead wife's body. 'I want to go with her at least,' a sentence he couldn't continue but Ryuu managed to understand. He looked around, confused and thoroughly agonized. Nagi squeezed his ankle once more and tears started streaming down Ryuu's face. 'Thank you, and take care of Rin, Ryuu-nii.'

Hayami couldn't even utter any sound as she watched an agonized Ryuu drive down his blade to Nagi's body. "Halt!" he ordered all the soldiers as he dropped to his knees and cried, holding Nagi's dead body in his arms.

History was right, Prince Nagi and his wife was to die at the hands of his brother, Prince Ryuu. However, history was wrong, Ryuu didn't want to kill his brother and not for greed for the throne.

* * *

"I knew you'd be here," she called as she joined Ryuu in the boat he was currently napping in. "Continue your nap, I'll row for you."

"Do you think I'm a monster for killing my own brother?" he asked as he kept his eyes closed.

"No, you granted him his final wish, he trusted you that's why he asked that of you," she answered.

"Don't you regret telling me his location? They would have been safe if you didn't."

"No, because you were there he was able to die gratefully," she assured him. She rowed some more and stopped in the middle of the lake, allowing him to nap peacefully and mourn for his brother in his sleep. After a while he woke up and rowed them back to the shore. "The empress is almost due to give birth. We don't know if it's going to be a prince or a princess but Prince Aka will surely try to strike before that. We should focus on protecting them."

He nodded. "I will make sure Nagi's death won't be in vain."

As chief lady-in-waiting, her foremost duty was to attend to the emperor however with the empress in such a delicate condition and at risk too, she personally attended to Megu instead. Hayami made sure of her meals and her baths, ensuring that no attempts to poison her can go through unnoticed. Security inside the palace tightened. No successful assassination was carried out however Megu's life was probably really meant to end early for she died of childbirth.

"It's a princess, Your Majesty," the doctor announced as he handed the bundle to Yuu. However no sooner had he held the baby than he felt Megu's hand fall limp in his.

"Megu!" he passed the baby to Hayami as he desperately tried to wake up his wife. It seemed the newborn realized what was happening too for she wailed loudly in Hayami's arms.

* * *

"Your Majesty, you should take a rest, you look too tired," Hayami said as she approached Yuu in the empty throne room. It had been a week since the simultaneous birth and death in his family. However she noticed that he seemed too tired even for someone who had barely slept for a week. In fact, he looked a bit ill. "I've prepared your bath."

"What about Hina?" he asked as he allowed her to lead him to the royal bath.

"We managed to calm her down enough to make her sleep," she said. The princess had cried nonstop too since her birth and Hayami was almost scared it might affect her health. "Wait!"

Hayami urgently pulled away the emperor before he could step inside the bath. She grabbed a teacup and dipped it into the water. To her horror, it turned dark. "Poison."

She grabbed the still-wet herb dipper. "No one was supposed to have entered after I prepared the bath. Someone managed to get past me and mix poison in the bath. It'll be the only reason this would still be wet," she said. She helped Yuu into his robes again as she called out orders to the court ladies outside. "Call for the imperial doctor!"

Just as Yuu was almost fully dressed, he threw up. Hayami's eyes widened as she realized: Yuu had in fact been ill.

"Y-your Majesty, it might be too late, you've been exposed to the poison for too long," the doctor stuttered when he finished his diagnosis.

"It was during the pregnancy of the empress, since I could only supervise your baths instead of personally attending to you, someone must have slipped past me during that time," she concluded, panic evident in her voice.

"Chief Rin, get a hold of yourself. Now more than ever, you have to protect the palace," Yuu calmly soothed her. "Doctor, you may leave, but please don't tell anyone the diagnosis for now. Call forth the advisor and Ryuu. Chief Rin, you must protect the princess."

She nodded and managed to leave the room despite her trembling. She sent for a court lady to fetch the great advisor while she dropped by Ryuu's office to inform him of the summon.

"Are you all right?" Ryuu had asked worriedly upon seeing her state. She had avoided looking at him directly and maintained a cold demeanor.

She nodded and pulled out her arm from his grasp. "You should hurry."

She went back to the harem and sought out the infant princess immediately. She checked the sleeping princess's body for any sign of illness. She dismissed the court ladies and took charge of watching over the princess. It must have been almost an hour when the princess stirred and started sobbing. Hayami carried her and tried soothing her, while she herself almost felt like breaking down.

"It's me," the familiar voice of Prince Ryuu called out. She allowed him to enter but did not turn to face him. She continued to soothe the princess while doing her best to stifle her own sobs. "Don't blame yourself."

He brought her out of the room, the court ladies of the princess taking over again. He took her to the back garden of the harem where they'd often stay when he visits her. "You're only sixteen years old, but you're doing well managing the palace."

For the first time, Hayami allowed herself to cry. She didn't wail. She didn't scream. She just allowed her tears to run.

"We'll be asking Sou to accept being named crown prince," after a while, Ryuu told her. "Everything seems planned. With no heir, Aka is next in line for the throne."

"Do you think Prince Sou will accept?" Sou had been a prince who did not desire the throne.

"He's too responsible to reject," Ryuu smiled bitterly. Hayami would have asked why he didn't want the throne for himself but she already knew the answer.

* * *

"It's a coronation but it looks like a battle," Yuki commented. She was now a court lady brought in when Hayami was promoted as chief. Hayami looked at her then turned back her gaze to the event in front. The palace grounds was surrounded by soldiers, headed by Prince Ryuu. He should have been in his prince robes but even he was wearing his armor. "Your cousin is to be proclaimed crown princess yet she can't be here."

"Nothing we can do about it, with a revolt or an assassination right around the corner," she sighed. "Yuki, go check the banquet hall, be prepared for when the ceremony ends."

Said ceremony, however, was not going to end for it couldn't even start. Prince Sou was running late and soon enough both Hayami and Ryuu realized something was wrong. They dashed to the chamber where Prince Sou was supposed to be waiting. Hayami stopped when she saw that all her court ladies assigned to Sou were murdered outside the room. Ryuu dashed inside only to be a step too late. The lone assassin had already stabbed the prince in the heart and leapt off the window when he arrived. Ryuu was about to give chase when a hand grabbed his leg.

Slowly, he turned to face the owner, trembling and dread in his face as he did so. Sou urged him to kneel down. Ryuu slowly lowered himself with bated breath to allow Sou to hold on to his shoulder and whisper to him his final words.

"I'm sorry, Ryuu, I really wanted to give you all the freedom you wanted…" he whispered as he fought hard to be able to finish his words. "...Protect Rio and Touka for me."

Hayami witnessed the scene as Ryuu held a dying Sou. He shook his same-aged brother and Hayami brought her hand to her face as she watched her former guardian die. She fought back the tears when she realized Ryuu had been frozen in his spot. She ran to him and realized his defense mechanism responded to the trauma brought upon seeing two of his brothers die in his hands. Not knowing what to do, she wrapped her arms around him and embraced him, willing him to stay strong.

Hiro followed by Ito and finally by Yuu who was being supported by the advisor arrived. They all froze in place too when they realized what had transpired.

"Your Majesty!" Yuu fainting snapped them all out of their trance.

"Go to him," Ryuu said in a barely audible voice when Hayami hesitated leaving him to attend to the emperor. She bit her lip and slowly removed her arms from around him to go to the emperor who owned her life.

* * *

"Give up on Prince Ryuu. I will marry him and make him emperor," had been Princess Touka's greeting to Hayami. After learning of her brother's death, she frantically ran back to the palace amid the danger. Hayami noted the title reference instead of the older brother honorific.

"He's your brother," was all she said, her face stoic and her tone calm as always.

"We're not from the same mother. We have different clans. We are practically unrelated," Touka replied back icily. "He's the only one left who stands a chance against Aka-nii. If we allow Aka-nii to overtake the throne, he will definitely wipe out the clans of those who oppose him. With my clan's support, Prince Ryuu will have enough forces to face him."

"You saying this to me right now shows that he hasn't agreed to this," Hayami stated. She then stood up. "Princess Touka, I knew you didn't like me from the start. You must not want to stay in my presence any longer, I appreciate your visit."

"I know you two are counting on the emperor granting you freedom to marry him but you should know that is not going to happen now. If Aka-nii succeeds, he will definitely hunt you two down," Touka said coldly and got up to leave.

Hayami grasped the table when Touka left the room. She allowed herself a moment to collect herself before proceeding to the emperor's bedchamber to attend to him. On the way she passed by Ryuu who silently held her hand then let go as they walked past each other.

She wordlessly attended to Yuu's meal then left him as soon as he was done. Outside, she found Ryuu waiting for her. He led her up to the tower where the great advisor's office was located.

"This is the best place to look at the stars in the whole empire," he said.

"The archery range," she said when she looked down and spotted it. "It's been a while since we last practiced."

"We didn't have much time lately, we both had too much work to do," he agreed. They stayed silent again for a while until he managed to speak again. "I won't be accepting Touka's proposal."

"What about the throne?" "I don't want it." "That's not what I'm asking."

She searched his face for anything. She knew what he wanted: freedom. The freedom to live how he wanted, not having to be used as a hunting wolf by whoever was seated on the throne, not having to live just to gain acceptance by those around him. As she continued to search his face, vague recollections of Emperor Ryuu's reign in her history lessons came to her. The most remarking trait had always been his ruthlessness to exterminate those who opposed him, but she remembered the policies he advocated for: equality, less discrimination on commoners, less emphasis on hierarchy. And then it hit her. That thing she couldn't remember about Touka. "You should marry Princess Touka."

Ryuu's mouth went agape and she knew his eyes had turned to saucers beneath those bangs. She didn't pay heed as she continued.

"Become emperor. That freedom you crave for, you be the one to create it," she said firmly, as she pictured Touka the empress in her mind. The drawings in her textbooks never did give justice to her chest. "It might not be possible for you to be free now, but at least for the people in this empire, you can do something to make them free. So that in the future common people can stand in equal footing with nobles. So that women are free to choose to marry. So that princes don't have to kill anyone."

Ryuu stared at her for a long while, absorbing her words and gauging her real feelings.

"So that Prince Hiro doesn't have to feel inferior due to his clan's low status. So that Prince Ito can be free for himself and not live just for the royal family. So that you don't have to see another brother die in your hands," she soothed him.

"What about you?" he breathed. She held her eyes firm and did her best to not let them quiver.

"I'll be fine," she smiled at him. One she knew he knew concealed her true emotions. He reached out for her hands and her smile turned bittersweet. She can't even remember when they started to be so comfortable with each other to be able to hold each other's hands.

Never before had she felt so cornered. She felt like the protagonist of some melodrama where everything conspires to separate her from her prince. But in those everything always gets solved in the end and they live happily ever after. She doesn't like being some pathetic and weak damsel in distress always having to be saved by the hero, but she dearly wished a miracle could happen right now.

'I'm so sorry your waiting has come to nothing.'

* * *

"You're not going to the wedding?" Prince Ito asked when he entered the harem. He approached Hayami who was trying to lull his niece to sleep. She just shook her head.

Emperor Yuu allowed her not to oversee the wedding of 4th Prince Ryuu and Princess Touka in the guise of having to take care of Princess Hina.

"What brings you here, Prince Ito?" she asked.

"I'm ditching too, but I met Ryuu-nii to tell him," he answered. He asked for some tea as he made himself comfortable. "You don't want to watch Ryuu-nii be proclaimed crown prince?"

She wanted to, but she didn't want to watch the wedding lest she lose her resolve. She kept her eyes trained on the baby princess, choosing not to reply to the prince's query. Ito respected that.

"Rin, if you can't bear it, do you want to marry me so that you can get out of the palace? I can ask for land in another region, maybe in your clan's, they live near the sea, right?" Ito spoke out hesitantly. She froze and her hold on the baby tightened a bit. "No, don't answer now. But you can keep that option open, I'm willing to do this for you. Just… tell me when you can't take it here anymore."

Prince Ito had always been a straightforward boy. It pained her that he was this hesitant but she couldn't say anything. She opted to change the topic instead. "Are you joining the war?"

"Ryuu-nii didn't want me to. He wanted to spare me from the clash between him and Aka-nii, but I chose to join and take a side," he then got up and prepared to leave. "Rin, just tell me if you decide."

* * *

Barely a day has passed since the wedding when Emperor Yuu's health took a turn for the worse.

'Too convenient,' Hayami wryly thought as she ordered busy court ladies around. The general had ordered a complete lock down of the castle and the whole army together with forces from Crown Princess Touka's clan was assembled in front of the main palace, with now Crown Prince Ryuu in front. An emperor on his deathbed always meant a prime opportunity to strike a rebellion, which meant Prince Aka would definitely strike today and make sure he's the last person emerging from the emperor's room, claiming for himself the throne.

The cruelest lesson Hayami learned from being in this time period wasn't that even if you made the right choices weak drama heroines wouldn't, if it wasn't meant to be, it wasn't meant to be. The cruelest would be that in a war, no matter how twisted and convoluted, whoever emerges victorious will be on the right and no one will question that. Worst was that she was currently in the middle of such war and her life was potentially in danger too.

She ordered the harem closed and all the court ladies to remain there before heading out, a bow and quiver of arrow in tow.

Ryuu had turned around just in time to see her step in front of the palace doors, surveying the grounds where the whole army was gathered. Their visions connected and she gave him a trusting nod.

"They're here," the shrill voice of the army general made Ryuu's head snap back in front, welcoming the armada led by Prince Aka and Prince Tomo.

Ryuu expected Aka's side to make the first move, but he did not expect that as soon as swords clashed on the grounds, enemy reinforcements in the form of assassins would come from the walls. Arrows were fired but though he managed to deflect those that came to his spot, his eyes trailed a certain projectile headed for way, way beyond him or the army behind him. His breath hitched upon realization that Hayami was indeed still out there, but she managed to avoid said arrow by twisting her flexible torso. She raised her bow and fired back at the certain assassin who launched said attack on her, hitting the shoulder enough to knock him off his perch. Her eyes went back to Ryuu as she lowered her bow, a confident smile in her face telling him not to worry about her. He released his bated breath and managed a silent chuckle. He gave her a nod, telling her to go on. 'I trust you too.'

Hayami ran inside the palace as she watched out for any attackers who could have slipped by the army. She went inside Emperor Yuu's bedchamber, placing down her bow and immediately attending to him. Only the great advisor was there with them.

"Chief Rin," Yuu regarded her. She knelt by his side. Somehow they all knew it was going to be tonight. She felt sorry he couldn't even be with his daughter on his final moments. She and Yuu weren't as close as she was with some of his brothers, but she was glad it was him she had to serve as lady-in-waiting. She believed in him as an emperor and he believed in her with the palace. "I really wanted to create an empire where Sou could paint as he liked, where Hiro could go wherever, where all my sisters could do as they pleased and marry who they wanted, where Nagi didn't have to conform to what kind of prince people expected him to be, where Ryuu doesn't have to be treated like a hunting dog…"

"Your Majesty, you are a good emperor," the advisor soothed him. Hayami just bit her lip and kept her head down.

"I'm sorry I couldn't grant you your freedom so that you could go with Ryuu," Yuu turned his head to her and reached for her face, tipping her chin so that he could meet her eyes. "Chief Rin, I cannot thank you enough for what you have done for me and this palace, but can I still ask you for one last thing? Please protect my wish for this empire, please support Ryuu as the emperor."

She held her emotions as she nodded. "I promise, Your Majesty," Yuu sighed contentedly as he looked up to the ceiling. With a smile on his face, his eyes shut close permanently and rain poured, as if the clouds opted to cry in Hayami's place.

Outside, the war raged on. Ryuu was at crossed swords with Aka when it rained. Truthfully, he was lost during the battle. He wasn't really sure what he was fighting for. He saw the general defend against multiple opponents at once. He saw Hiro battling with Tomo. He saw Ito distracted from his own battle, eyes darting every now and then to his two biological older brothers.

"If you stay like this, I will kill you and will take that throne for myself, Ryuu," Aka said condescendingly.

It was when he felt water droplets trickle in front of his helmet, wetting his hair that he woke up. 'Yuu-nii is gone,' his older brother had woken him up. His gaze shifted to the person in front of him: his only remaining elder brother. The catch is, this one had to go down too. He allowed his eyes to survey his surroundings again and this time, he knew there was only way to stop this war. 'She's right, that freedom, only I can create it,' and it meant one more brother had to die at his hands. He looked up and asserted himself against Aka with more determination. Aka's devious eyes lit up too, sensing the change in his younger brother. "I never respected you, but I never wanted to kill a brother even if it's you, Aka-nii."

"That was the first time you recognized me as your older brother," Aka said, stepping back to prepare for his final charge. The look in his eyes shifted and Ryuu recognized pride there as if Aka was saying, 'that's it, my brother, you're ready now, come at me with all you've got and win.'

"Ito! Go to the chief lady-in-waiting and protect the palace!" Ryuu ordered to spare him from seeing the inevitable. With determined faces, the two brothers charged at each other. The world slowed down as Ryuu deflected Aka's sword to cut his shoulder instead.

Aka gave him one last proud smile, 'be a strong emperor, Ryuu.' With a tear falling from each eye, Ryuu drove his blade through Aka's chest.

"Halt! The war is over!" Hiro cried out, dropping his sword to his side. He wept as he watched Ryuu hold Aka, the rain continuing to pour.

Hayami ran out as soon as Ito came from her. As she had guessed, the war was over. Ito stayed stock still when he saw the middle of the ground: Hiro was weeping while Ryuu held the now dead Aka in his arms.

Hayami swallowed before opening her eyes again to regard everyone in the palace. "The emperor… has died!" she announced. She looked at the great advisor who nodded at her to continue. "His last decree: Crown Prince Ryuu shall succeed the throne."

* * *

"I received news that exiled Prince Tomo had poisoned himself," Hayami relayed the news coldly to Yuki who wasn't able to hide the devastation in her face. "And Yuki, I know it was you who poisoned Emperor Yuu's bath."

Yuki did not defend herself. She just kept her head down in shame. "I will accept my punishment, Chief Rin."

She knew why Yuki did it: Prince Tomo, or more precisely, Prince Aka. Prince Aka who never let anything slip by him had planned everything, from ordering Prince Tomo to suggest bringing Yuki to Hayami in the harem, to Prince Tomo's transfer to Internal Affairs, to poisoning the emperor's bath behind Hayami's back. He counted on the friendship between the former master and attendant, and the attendant's great admiration for Prince Tomo.

"Yuki, in my time here, I realized something: behind every great emperor is a martyr lady-in-waiting. Chief Rina saved Emperor Yuu from being poisoned by the empress due to her love for Emperor Souma. I may not be in love with Emperor Yuu, but I am his lady-in-waiting. I will name you my successor, Yuki, that will be your punishment for treason," Yuki's head snapped up to her at this. "You have no more reason to live but you will continue to live and support Emperor Ryuu, but he will never trust you and you won't be able to harm him, nor will he remove you from your post."

"Chief Rin, the court room is ready for the coronation," a court lady announced from outside her office.

Hayami went out and led the waiting court ladies to the main palace to watch the coronation. She decided against checking on Ryuu one last time and stayed back, watching people murmur in excitement.

Soon Ryuu and Touka came out, signaling the start of the ceremony. Ryuu marched to the throne where the advisor was waiting for him with the emperor's crown. Hayami's eyes never left him, intent on fully capturing him ascend to the throne. His eyes found hers when he turned to face his people and they kept their gazes locked on each other as the advisor placed the crown on his head.

She smiled at him encouragingly. 'You will be a great emperor.'

'Thank you for trusting me,' he smiled back.

She felt blood threatening to throw up from her mouth. Her legs faltered and she grasped Yuki just as the celebration started.

"Chief Rin!" Yuki exclaimed worriedly as Hayami did her best to usher themselves out of the festivities before anyone can notice.

"Prince Aka managed to one up me right before the war," Hayami gave a small smile. She felt her legs fully give out and she let Yuki catch her. "Yuki, don't tell anyone. Just call Prince Ito and tell him I'm sorry that I still don't want to get married and that I want him to bury me near the sea."

In her mind, she apologized to Ito for being this selfish until the end. 'Am I really dying this time?' she thought as she looked up at the sky.

The last thing that she could see before her eyes finally fluttered close was the darkening sun, eclipsed by the moon.

* * *

A/N: There is still an epilogue chapter after this one, please stay tuned for that one. Okay, so after this one, I vowed never to make promises on updates anymore, or at least never write anything in some sort of anger. As I mentioned last chapter, this really was written out of anger at that show I was watching, so I haven't thought through it much when I decided to write and publish this. I essentially packed a 20-episode drama into this single chapter which I found really hard to do. There was the option of making this a long-run fic but I just didn't feel like doing it. So I settled for focusing on the parts I wanted to change, but of course I still had to make the story flow. I do admit I'm not as satisfied with how I wrote this but I just don't have the heart to dwell on this any longer because I can't move on to writing other fics.

There's also been some major events happening in my country during the time I was writing this. I wish I could have emphasized it more in this story, but it was something I really wanted to point out: history is to be understood, not to be memorized just for the sake of taking a test. Our history teacher's job is to lay us the facts, explain the events, but it is upon us to analyze and evaluate what has happened. For me there is no one who could tell you that your opinion in history is wrong, as long as you have done your proper research and formed that opinion based on what you've gathered and not simply took what your history teacher told you was right or wrong.

Well, I hope I still see you for the next chapter and my next fics, I have a lot planned.


	3. Freedom

Scarlet Heart: Koro  
(Chiba x Hayami)

Disclaimer: I don't, and never will I, own Ansatsu Kyoushitsu/Assassination Classroom. I don't own Scarlet Heart/Bu Bu Jing Xin either. This plot also does not mention anything historically accurate. Though set in historical Japan, everything about the emperors and princes mentioned are made up. I did not bother to research about historical figures in Japan.

A/N: Did you notice the new cover art for this story? I recently found out about the (now defunct) AssClass Mobile Card Game and got enticed with using the photos to create a cover. I got a bit lazy to change the background to match it to this tragedy fanfic though.

* * *

Hayami woke up sweating buckets and panting heavily. She glanced at the digital clock on her bedside table. 3:15 a.m. Damn it, she wouldn't be going back to sleep again. She threw her body back on the bed, an arm across her head. It's been a while since she last had a dream like this.

"It was the end of a war," she tried recalling the dream. She could vaguely remember being surrounded by dead and alive warriors of a war. She could recall fixing her gaze at someone silently weeping in the middle of it all but she couldn't remember the person.

This had first happened when she was discharged from the hospital last year. She somehow managed to survive that accident with the motorcycle. Her ribs were broken and her head suffered a concussion but they were healed, albeit she was caught up in a coma for a whole week. After that, for the majority of the year, she had been wrought with these dreams, and she almost wasn't able to sleep. They only stopped when she entered her third year of middle school, when she met that weird octopus-like teacher.

Hayami was a good student, and honestly the 1 week off school wouldn't really have affected her studies. She could really have caught up in no time and she wouldn't have been dropped to Class E. However between these dreams that left her with almost no sleep and her classmates quickly getting back to their habit of dumping all their homeworks at her, she stood no chance.

The dreams always seemed vivid but whenever she woke up, there were always parts that were vague. She didn't know what to make of it.

She laid there for hours, her eyes wide open and never falling back asleep. At dawn she silently left her house, not even leaving a note. Her parents probably wouldn't even realize she was already gone before them. They often didn't see each other in the morning, her parents were the busy type of people who would leave breakfast with a note and would be long gone when she got up. She headed straight to the Kunugigaoka class E building on top of the hill in her gym uniform. She did 10 rounds of running before practicing shooting at the range.

"As I thought, it was you, Hayami-san," Hayami estimated that there was still an hour to go before students started arriving when her homeroom teacher arrived. She greeted him a curt good morning. "It seems you've been here for a long while. It's the first time someone's here before me."

"Don't mind me, Korosensei, go on with your class preparations," she answered, stoic as usual.

"I guess I should. You're free to attempt assassinating me while you have the chance, Hayami-san," and then he ran at mach 20 speed, disappearing inside the building. He was so fast Hayami didn't notice that he looked intently at the target she'd been shooting at, full of shots uncharacteristically off the mark.

She didn't take up the octopus on his offer. She was too unstable today and she knew absolutely none of her shots would even make it close to killing her teacher.

* * *

Hayami was rarely out of focus especially on work but she was too shaken up by her dream that she carried it even to class. She was just glad that today's roll call attempt wasn't centered on the sniper combi, which she was one half of, so no one really noticed. She'd kept a stoic face all throughout the class too even though her mind was wandering elsewhere. She survived Irina's English class through pure luck at not being called, while Karasuma's P.E. class was more athletic like box vaulting, which she managed to go through even in her flighty state of mind.

What she couldn't go through with luck though was her hang out with Chiba, her classmate with bangs covering his face, after class. At least she didn't forget about it at all. Today they watched a movie, a romantic comedy, and at the start, Hayami was thankful since it meant she didn't have to talk to him yet. It allowed her mind to wander but not actually watching the movie meant she couldn't talk about it with him after.

She kept her eyes trained on the movie screen even though she really was absorbing nothing. She did her best to glance at the person beside her through the corner of her eyes. Chiba was almost motionless as he watched the movie without giving out any reaction no matter what the scene was, only moving occasionally to grab some popcorn or sip his drink.

It was the second time she asked him out for fun and not for anything closely related to training. This guy was the other half of the sniper combi and as such, they often worked together, leading them to being paired often in and out of assassination and to training together. She didn't know him from before they were dropped to Class E but after the whole Okinawa ordeal during summer, they became closer. She'd felt comfortable working with him ever since the start of the school year but she became really curious about him after Okinawa. He just felt like someone she knew from before but she couldn't quite grasp how so. She didn't really know how to talk to him either as he was so detached and wouldn't really communicate with anyone much. The only times she could make him talk much was when they were talking about guns.

"Uh, what did you think about that movie?" he asked rather hesitantly when he realized she wasn't going to speak first. They were at a café, having made plans to eat there after watching the movie.

"It was, uh, okay. What did you think?" she just knew letting her mind wander earlier was not a good idea.

"It's okay, I guess," they didn't speak again after their food arrived, Chiba having realized it will be hard to get much response from her today. He must have realized she was out of sorts by now.

She felt sorry to him for making today turn out more awkward than their first one, especially since it was her idea in the first place. She just hoped this didn't affect their teamwork in class, though she doubt that would happen. After all, their most common point after being the best snipers was their businesslike work ethic. They wouldn't let anything like this affect getting their job done. Her missed shots this morning were an exception though.

She silently hoped she won't dream again tonight so that tomorrow won't be the same.

* * *

Bad news: Hayami had another bout of sleepless night again due to a dream. Good news: Lady Luck was still on her side because training still didn't involve shooting or simulations so she was still able to get through class the following day despite being distracted.

Even better, Korosensei dismissed them fairly early today. She politely declined offers from her friends to go out to grab a bite somewhere, opting instead to go home immediately in hopes of reorganizing her thoughts. Korosensei, however, had different plans for her.

"Hayami-san, were you planning anything this afternoon?" he asked her when she was already a few steps out of their school building.

"Korosensei, you can't fool me, I know you fully heard my conversation with Yada and the others earlier. You know I don't have anything planned," at least her sharp tongue wasn't affected by her distracted mind.

"You got me there," he gave off that forced sheepish laugh of his. "I noticed something was bothering you in class earlier. Your favorite subject is History, right? It just so happened that there's an exhibit today about the Sengoku period, I thought we should make an excursion there to make up for what you missed during History class today."

"Eh?" one blink was the only thing she managed as the speed maniac octopoid picked her up and shot off from the ground.

The museum should have been 6 stations away but they got there in just about the time it would have taken her to go back inside the old building. Without giving her much time to reel from the shock of flying at such freakish speed (really, did he have to fly at almost his top speed for somewhere that was just in the same city?), he bought them entrance tickets (at least he was paying for hers) and ushered her inside. She belatedly noticed he was in his ridiculous human disguise already.

The exhibit showed all the emperors of the Sengoku period and various artifacts related to each of those emperors. There were also some discussions about notable acts and decrees of the emperors.

"Hayami-san, what would be your favorite period in the history of Japan?" Korosensei asked when they started going through each emperor.

"Favorite period? We've got a pretty brutal history, Korosensei, I don't think I can really choose," she answered as she focused on reading the details on a vase sculpted with a unique style traced to the reign of the 2nd emperor of the period. "The Sengoku period probably wouldn't be it, though, as it is the most unstable and most violent one."

"Hmnn," she didn't know if he truly thought deeply about her answer but she just let him be. "It was a turning point for history, in my opinion. Ah, who would you choose to be your favorite emperor during the Sengoku period?"

"Emperor?" she was just about to conjure a list of the emperors for this period in her mind when they reached Emperor Souma's portrait. The list, and even the question directed at her, was suddenly forgotten. Something had drawn her to the portrait and the various artifacts in front of her. In the discussion about said emperor was a list of his consorts and offspring, a quick glance to which caused her brain to swirl.

10th Prince Nagi. Seeing the name suddenly conjured a memory of one of her plaguing dreams: of her drowning. It would have been fine if she only saw a vision of said dream, but her body somehow remembered the feeling too, as if she had actually once drowned in real life.

"Ah, Emperor Yuu, quite a favorite emperor of mine, it's a pity his reign was too short," if Korosensei noticed her discomfort, he must have deliberately ignored it, preferring to move on ahead to the next emperor. Hayami forced herself to look at the portrait.

The portrait was pretty vague since it was only a drawing that she couldn't actually think of the face as a real person, but she felt something in her, familiarity. And again some of her dreams came back to her as if it were a memory, this time of a young emperor holding out a hand to her face. He said something to her and she replied making him smile at her gratefully before pulling back. He looked peaceful until his eyes fluttered close and Hayami felt the way her chest constricted when she was at his bedside.

At that point Hayami felt like running after something, her memories maybe. With a sense of urgency she ran ahead of Korosensei to the next emperor, the other artifacts presented for Yuu's reign missing her sight.

"The most controversial of all the emperors, Emperor-"

"Ryuu," she finished as her world stood still, her eyes transfixed on the portrait in front of her. The face was barely shown, the headpiece that served as the crown effectively covering most of his face. But underneath the bead-like curtain of the crown, she could glimpse a hair-covered face, and an unmistakable smile.

It was Ryuu eye-locked with her as he was being crowned. It served as the trigger for all those things she had dreamed of for the past year to come back to her as if they were memories instead of dreams.

 _Waking up to finding herself drowning then breaking the surface with a gender-confusing boy._

 _Fainting and waking up again to the estate owned by 8th Prince Sou and a fussing Lady Rio._

 _Being hoisted up on a horseback and meeting 4th Prince Ryuu for the first time._

 _Fighting with a bow until she couldn't kill an enemy in front of her, Prince Sou covering her eyes to kill her attacker._

 _Barely escaping marriage to the emperor by slashing her arm._

 _Witnessing Chief Rina die saving Crown Prince Yuu._

 _Prince Ryuu crying as he held the dead body of Prince Nagi._

 _Prince Ryuu ascending to the throne._

Hayami couldn't help herself when her knees made her fall weakly to the ground.

"Hayami-san, are you okay?" finally Korosensei seemed to have noticed she wasn't feeling well, but she barely registered that Korosensei's reaction was too relaxed as if her actions weren't warranting panic.

She opened her mouth to speak, to tell him every memory that came back to her, to tell him she had experienced a soul switch before. That was until she caught herself. Was everything that came back to her memories or simply stuff she had dreamed of?

She was panting and blinking rapidly as she turned her head around to glance at her surroundings, as if she was looking for some sign to answer her question. Her gaze stopped at a small sculpture of a woman in a dance pose, arms flying about and a leg raised. The dance pose was too modern for what she wore: an elaborate kimono. By the feet lay a bow and a quiver of arrows. It was an artifact under Emperor Yuu's reign that she had missed in her haste earlier. She searched the title plate and her eyes widened at what she read. Chief Lady-in-waiting Rin - known for her grace and being the only court lady to handle a bow. "Prince Sou's gift for my 16th birthday…" she uttered. It was a sculpture so the resemblance was barely noticeable, but Hayami ascertained that it indeed looked like her. "They're true, they weren't just dreams."

"Hayami-san, I said are you okay?" Korosensei prodded her, effectively bringing her back from her reverie and preventing tears from spilling from her eyes. "Are you dizzy? Can you stand up?"

The gentleness of Korosensei's voice allowed her to calm down at least her actions. She nodded softly and allowed him to help her stand up. "Just give me a moment please, Korosensei."

She didn't really know what to make of her situation. Here she was a year later after being transported to and from at least a century in the past. Was she supposed to be thinking of things like reincarnation right now? Or how Prince Ryuu and the others were doing? But by now they were dead, weren't they? It was so hard to collect her thoughts and Hayami found herself inwardly breathing in and out.

It was due to pure luck, or maybe not, that Hayami was the most levelheaded person in Class E. Had it been anyone else in her situation, they would have panicked and started screaming already. But Hayami did none of that. She turned back to her teacher with her stoic face. She had to leave now to properly organize her thoughts. This wasn't the proper venue for that.

He was looking at Emperor Ryuu's portrait again. He spoke just as Hayami was about to ask to leave. "He sure do looks familiar, don't you think?"

Her eyes turned from him to the portrait. And then something that should have hit her earlier finally did now. "Chiba," she blurted out. 'The people I met from the past all look like people I know right now!' "Korosensei, I have to leave right now!"

"Ah, that reminds me, I think I suggested to Chiba-kun to try out the sushi place just near here," he remarked, as if she hadn't asked to leave with panic in her voice. He finally looked her in the eye, that caring smile in his face. "Very well, Hayami-san, I hope you learned a lot from this tour."

His smile made her calm down again. She smiled back at him. "I'm sorry for not looking at everything in the exhibit, Korosensei. Thank you for bringing me here and treating me. I promise to tour it completely the next time."

"I'm glad you enjoyed it, Hayami-san. But don't forget to turn in an essay about this tomorrow," she had already turned her back to go out of the museum, his statement making her stop.

"But Korosensei, our history lesson is already in world history, not the Sengoku period," she smiled at him before turning back and hurriedly walking out of the place.

She dug around in her bag for her mobile phone, her feet never stopping even though she did not have a concrete destination. She urgently sent a text to Chiba asking him where he was right now. As soon as she sent it, she called him, never bothering to wait for a reply.

"Hello, Hayami?" his voice which had a somewhat emotionless yet lazy tone to it answered her. Hayami felt a jolt in her being upon hearing his voice, a voice that reminded her of a certain prince.

"Where are you right now?" she asked, her words almost stringed together due to her speaking in a rush.

"Currently I'm-"

Her feet that never stopped moving ever since she went out of the museum had a mind of its own. "Ryuu," she called out as the arm holding up the phone to her ear fell limply at her side. There in front of her right now was Chiba; his bangs covering half of his face very much like Prince Ryuu. There was an arm's length of distance between them as both she and he stopped in their tracks, their gazes locked in each other.

Slurry of emotions and memories passed through her. They could barely hear in the background of the ever busy city and its slew of digital monitors an announcement of a should-have-been eclipse had the moon not been reduced to its crescent state.

Chiba's eyes registered surprise at her sudden arrival, which then changed to confusion at her urgent looking for him. All this she knew despite his hair covering his eyes. And then finally, his mouth opened in surprise, his eyes widening at recognition. She knew then that her hunch was right, Ryuu had been transported to Chiba's body. "You remember… Rin."

Before she could think about it, Hayami closed the distance between them and reached her hands to his face. One hand rested on his cheek and the other brushed his bangs to reveal his eyes. They were just as she remembered them: sharp and intense. "Since when where you here?"

"Around a year ago during fall, I think it was around a week after an eclipse," he answered. She recognized the feeling of disbelief that passed over him through his eyes as he raised his hands to rest on top of hers. The surprise was then replaced by fear and it was all Hayami needed to know what had transpired to him since then.

"I'm sorry," she closed her eyes as tears started to fall. "You must have felt alone."

She felt so sorry for him as she thought about him waking up suddenly to a whole new environment. At least with her she was brought in the past so she had a vague idea of how things worked. But for him to be thrust into the future with no one to guide him...

"It was confusing, but I realized that this is where you came from. I always knew you weren't the Rin who was Lady Rio's cousin. Something about the way you speak," he paused, remembering her word slips in the past. He then moved his hands to cup her face, tilting her head and making her eyes open to look at him directly. "Can you tell me now, did I succeed?"

To grant freedom to the future, she knew. She smiled the widest smile she had ever given and nodded. "Look around you now. You did it."

He let out a big sigh of relief, as if he had been holding it from a century ago, and his head fell on her shoulder. Her hands moved to pat him gently.

"Here, this time, you don't have to kill anyone," she said softly. A gentle breeze blew past them as they stayed like that for a while. As if to break the moment, a camera flash followed by a loud rustle of something quickly rushing away distracted them, making them pull away from each other. They both looked as they caught a whiff of yellow in the sky. They both laughed. "Ah, maybe we do still have to kill someone."

* * *

They caught up with each other as they walked, like old friends meeting after a long time.

"So does that mean the real Chiba Ryuunosuke died?" Hayami had surmised that his accident happened one week after hers, basically during that time she woke up from her coma. She briefly wondered if it was interconnected.

He nodded morosely. "When I woke up, his parents and sisters were all telling me who I was. I did the only thing I could, I kept quiet. I didn't really know what to tell them, plus I was a bit confused with how they spoke. It was just like how you spoke when you slipped, and that's how I understood what happened to you then."

Hayami felt like it was all making sense to her. Why she had felt so drawn to Chiba, why she had been so curious as to why he had a hard time communicating. She then smiled at him, her hand reaching out to hold his. "I'd like to believe there's a reason to all of this. Don't feel guilty about your parents. They're your parents and you're Chiba Ryuunosuke. You're free to live how you want this time."

Maybe it really was fated, as he was pulled into his 14 year old incarnation, the same age he had gotten stuck into in his past life when he was thrown away by his mother. It was as if the gods were giving him a chance to continue his life more freely this time.

"I knew there was a reason calling you Prince Ryuu just didn't sit well with me," she then grinned. She turned to face him and offered a hand to him. "Hello, I'm Hayami Rinka."

Chiba finally smiled a genuine smile. He accepted the handshake. He realized he had actually never called her by her name, Rin, even before. "Hello, I'm Chiba Ryuunosuke."

This time, they had all the time in the world to get to know each other.

* * *

"I am really glad you seem to be in high spirits today, Hayami-san," Korosensei followed it with his unique laugh as he skimmed through her essay and dodged her attacks at the same time. "It's very well done, Hayami-san. I particularly liked how you gave another point of view about Emperor Ryuu's reign, focusing on the impacts of what he's done for the country."

"You know, Korosensei, you remind me of someone I know from before," she said to him.

He laughed. "Is he smart and charming too?"

"Rather, he's just as perverted and mysterious as you," she answered, remembering the great advisor who opened her eyes to accepting Prince Ryuu. She thanked Korosensei sincerely and left his office to go back inside the classroom.

Karma had just left Chiba's side when she approached him. It seems they shared something to laugh about. "Don't you feel weird when you see Karma?"

Chiba smiled and shrugged. "They're the same, they're misunderstood. Aka turned like that because the empress never allowed him to think of anything else except the throne."

Hayami nodded in understanding, glad that he seemed to be coping well. Heck, he seemed like he was coping here better than in his own time. She held up one of the books stacked on his desk. "The studies should be the hardest for you to catch up with."

"Not really, besides, we got that octopus for a teacher," he grinned. "I think he understood my situation and gave me more resources."

She always knew he was smart, that underneath the great soldier was a man with great intellect. He seemed happy to be able to focus on studying now unlike in his previous life. "Do you want help with Social Studies? That's my best subject. Helped me a lot, in the past."

Nobody ever knew that the silence that followed after between a stoic faced Hayami and an emotionless-as-usual Chiba was actually hiding a laugh at the inside joke.

* * *

"Rinka, we're going to check out this new café, do you want to come with us?" Yada asked her when they were dismissed.

"Not today, I've got an errand for my mom," she smiled apologetically. Yada understood and turned to face their other friends walking on her other side. Hayami tensed when a thought hit her as they trekked down the hill, Yada on one side of her and Chiba on the other. She glanced back and forth the two once.

It was when they were separated, she and Chiba going towards the way home, Yada and the others headed to the opposite direction, that she steeled herself to look at Chiba intently. "What about Yada?"

He regarded her with a 'what about her?' look.

"You were married to Princess Touka and even had a child. You don't feel anything when you see Yada?" her face was stoic as usual but she averted her eyes from him.

"Ah, Shuu, he's not our child. He's Sou's son," according to history, Shuu, next emperor after Ryuu, was Ryuu's only child. "You didn't know because Lady Rio was sent away before the war. She was pregnant with Sou's child then. I forgot to tell you after because of the events."

Chiba smiled as he remembered Sou asking him to look after his family in his dying breath. And then he remembered something and he turned sullen.

"Your cousin died of childbirth," Hayami froze in shock. Even if it had been a short time, Rio had been family for her. Chiba allowed her to mourn for a while. "Since it had been hidden, we decided to let everyone believe he's our child. It also solved the problem of, uh, producing an heir."

"So you and Princess Touka," she let her words trail off.

"We never shared a room, never acted like a married couple," he said, his tone almost defensive. She raised an eyebrow at that. "Check the books, I never took a consort. I even started the trend of monogamy in the palace."

* * *

Even if Chiba and Hayami were one of the earliest and most popular ships in Class E, their friends never expected the pair to get married early. In fact, had Nagisa not gotten Kayano pregnant, which was unplanned, they would pretty much be the first to be married among the class.

"Who knew Hayami-san could show that much emotion?" Kayano looked fondly at the bride who looked like she was floating on cloud nine and not on an aisle. A wide smile was on her face and though graceful as ever, she almost looked like she wanted to skip merrily.

True, Hayami had improved leaps and bounds in communicating with people, eventually using it to be the face of the architecture firm she founded with Chiba, but Hayami never let herself that loose in terms of expressing how she was feeling.

"But she did, even when we were in middle school," Yada said, a proud smile on her face as she too watched her friend walk down the aisle. "It was only with Chiba-kun. She talked more when with him too."

Hayami reached Chiba who gently took her hand and led her to the altar, a loving smile on his face. They stood there facing each other, gazes locked together even though Chiba's bangs still covered his eyes.

"Thank you for waiting for me," she said softly, her eyes full of emotion and gratitude.

At first he had simply been waiting for her to come of age. And then he had to wait to reach her again. He basically waited for her for an entire lifetime until fate decided to transport him to today. When they decided to let their careers be settled first after graduation, he had no qualms. After all, what was a few years more when technically he had crossed more than a century for her?

He squeezed her hands appreciatively in his. "You were worth the wait."

* * *

A/N: Wow, I made it here. And yes, my goal had been to make a happy ending for our couple **together**. The Chinese drama I believe allowed the guy to be reincarnated while the Korean version just allowed the heroine to be pulled back to her old life, only memories remaining with her. I just think that they didn't deserve that and for once, I wanted to give them a chance to be together, hence I decided that the hero should be given a chance to live again, not as simply a reincarnation but as himself. I think it somehow molded well with the actual Assassination Classroom story, like an explanation of why Chiba finds it hard to communicate with people. Anyway thanks for making it here, I hope you were able to appreciate my take on this story. Please do stay tuned as I have lots of stories planned for ChibaHaya (and maybe some other pairings too).


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